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Vol.  XXX 
No.  3 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW  PUBLICATIONS 


Whole  No.  138 
1921 


Psychological  Monographs 

EDITED  BY 

JAMES  ROWLAND  ANGELL,  Yale  University. 

HOWARD  C.  WARREN,  Princeton  University  ( Review ) 

JOHN  B.  WATSON,  New  York  (/.  of  Exp.  Psychol .) 

SHEPHERD  I.  FRANZ,  Govt.  Hosp.  for  Insane  ( Bulletin )  and 
MADISON  BENTLEY,  University  of  Illinois  (Index) 


Critical  and  Experimental  Studies 

in  Psychology 

From  the  University  of  Illinois 

EDITED  BY 

MADISON  BENTLEY 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  REVIEW  COMPANY 

PRINCETON,  N.  J. 
and  LANCASTER,  PA. 


Agents:  G.  E.  STECHERT  &  CO.,  London  (2  Star  Yard,  Carey  St.,  W.  C.) 

Paris  (16,  rue  de  Conde) 


* 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

i.  Dynamical  principles  in  recent  psychology.  By  Madison 

Bentley. 

ii.  Some  neglected  aspects  of  a  history  of  psychology.  By 

Coleman  R.  Griffith. 

iii.  A  preliminary  study  of  the  emotions.  C.  A.  Ruckmick. 

iv.  A  comment  upon  the  psychology  of  the  audience.  By 

Coleman  R.  Griffith. 

v.  Leading  and  legibility.  By  Madison  Bentley. 

vi.  The  printing  of  backbone  titles  on  thin  books  and  magazines. 

By  P.  N.  Gould,  L.  C.  Raines,  and  C.  A.  Ruckmick. 

vii.  Experiments  in  sound  localization.  By  C.  A.  Ruckmick. 

viii.  The  intensive  summation  of  thermal  sensations.  By  An¬ 

nette  Baron  and  Madison  Bentley. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/criticalexperime00bent_0 


DYNAMICAL  PRINCIPLES  IN  RECENT  PSYCHOLOGY 

By  Madison  Bentley 
and 

Members  of  the  Psychological  Seminary 

I. 

Man’s  earliest  conception  of  mind  appears  to  have  been  that 
of  an  intangible  and  inscrutable  substance  which  was  at  once 
an  active  personal  agent,  a  private  possession,  and  a  unique 
source  of  power  and  authority.  The  more  detached  and  less 
emotional  accounts  of  mind,  accounts  which  have  put  description 
before  possession  and  understanding  before  use,  arose,  as  a  natural 
sequence,  very  much  later.  But  the  two  views  once  established  be¬ 
came  enduring  and  persistent  rivals.  To  this  day  they  have  con¬ 
tended  together.1  The  earlier  view  has  been  generally  represented 
in  the  “doctrine  of  the  soul,” — a  doctrine  encouraged  by  philoso¬ 
phy,  theology,  and  the  unreflective  opinion  of  common  sense  and 
uncritical  knowledge.  The  strongest  support  of  the  later  view 
has  come  from  the  natural  sciences,  which  have  lent  it  both  a  pat¬ 
tern  and  a  methodological  background.  The  development  of  the 
physical  sciences  has,  it  is  true,  laid  stress  upon  a  description  of 
the  world  in  terms  of  the  transfer  of  energy  within  and  between 
systems, — a  description  which  has  seemed  to  leave  mind  out  of 
account.  At  the  same  time,  the  insistence  of  these  sciences  upon 
controlled  and  verifiable  observation  of  events  has  been  carried 
over  to  the  mental  facts  and  thus  has  indirectly  promoted  a 
descriptive  psychology  of  process. 

1  Writers  who  look  upon  the  dynamical  conceptions  as  new  and  mod¬ 
ern  display  a  distorted  perspective.  H.  W.  Carr,  e.g.,  declares  in  the 
Preface  to  his  English  translation  of  Bergson’s  L’energie  spirituelle ;  “In 
recent  years  we  have  witnessed  the  opening  up  of  a  new  and  long-unsus¬ 
pected  realm  of  fact  to  scientific  investigation,  the  unconscious  mind.  The 
very  term  seemed  to  the  older  philosophy  to  imply  a  latent  contradiction, 
today  it  is  a  simple  general  description  of  recognized  phenomena.” 


2 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


The  older,  active  or  dynamic  view  of  the  “soul”  has  not,  in 
spite  of  the  scientific  trend  of  our  own  generation,  been  given 
up.  All  sorts  of  extra-psychological  sanctions — philosophical, 
biological,  medical,  etc.,' — have  sustained  it.  With  these  latter 
sanctions  we  are  not  here  concerned.  But  psychology  itself 
has  found,  and  it  continues  to  find,  reasons  for  conceiving  mind 
as  a  power  or  force,  as  an  agent  which  originates,  directs  and 
controls.  These  reasons  are  many  and  varied;  nothing  less 
than  a  history  of  modern  psychology  could  expound  and  inter¬ 
pret  them.  Our  own  study  is  much  less  ambitious.  It  proposes 
to  examine  a  few  outstanding  accounts  of  mind  which  have  been 
substantially  based  upon  dynamical  principles.  These  accounts 
represent  many  schools  and  various  traditions,  and  they  sustain 
unlike  interests  in  the  facts  and  laws  of  mind.  By  “dynamical” 
we  mean  that  they  consider  mind  under  the  category  of  activity: 
that  they  represent  mind  as  being  or  possessing  a  central  force  or 
power  which  is  causally  related  to  other  forms  of  existence  and 
to  physical  events.  Our  examination  of  these  chosen  systems  has 
made  it  appear  that  the  dynamical  elements  in  recent  psychology 
are  of  at  least  four  kinds;  i.e.,  mind  is  regarded  as  a  creator,  an 
initiator,  a  selector  and  repressor,  and  an  organizer.  Possibly 
these  forms  of  activity  differ  only  in  degree  and  in  shading,  and 
some  writers  pass  easily  in  their  expositions  from  one  of  them  to 
another;  but  they  seem  to  represent  logical  differences  as  well  as 
differences  in  point  of  view  and  perspective  which  have  not  been 
carefully  defined. 

We  have  chosen  men  who  have  either  exemplified  important 
historical  doctrines  or  who  have  represented  an  aspect  or  phase 
of  psychology  of  serious  import  to  the  developing  and  expanding 
science.  Their  own  distinct  contributions  to  psychology  have 
been  by  no  means  equivalent.  The  writers  chosen  for  critical 
study  in  the  seminary  are  James,  Woodworth,  Janet,  Bergson, 
Freud  and  McDougall. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


3 


II. 

William  James 
(C.  A.  Ruckmick) 

There  seems  to  be  no  ambiguity  concerning  the  general  type 
of  mind  that  James  describes  in  his  Principles  of  Psychology. 
It  is  always  an  active,  energetic,  dynamic  agent  of  the  psycho¬ 
physical  organism.  Statements  illustrative  of  his  point  of  view, 
taken  from  various  contexts,  are: 

“Consciousness  is  in  its  very  nature  impulsive ”  (II,  526).  “The 
impulsive  quality  of  mental  states  is  an  attribute  behind  which 
we  cannot  go”  (II,  551).  “This  dynamic  (I  had  almost  written 
dynamitic)  way  of  representing  knowledge  has  the  merit  of  not 
being  tame”  (I,  369).  “To  my  brain,  however,  I  am  dynamically 
present,  inasmuch  as  my  thoughts  and  feelings  seem  to  react  upon 
the  processes  thereof”  (I,  214). 

When  we  proceed,  however,  we  find  here  and  there  points  that 
are  not  so  clearly  made  and  distinctions  that  are  not  so  sharply 
drawn.  But  the  primary  descriptions,  even  in  detail,  are  em¬ 
phatic. 

First  of  all  consciousness  in  its  several  phases  is  a  selecting 
agent. 

“Consciousness  is  at  all  times  primarily  a  selecting  agency. 
Whether  we  take  it  in  the  lowest  sphere  of  sense,  or  in  the  highest 
of  intellection,  we  find  it  always  doing  one  thing,  choosing  one 
out  of  several  of  the  materials  so  presented  to  its  notice,  em¬ 
phasizing  and  accentuating  that  and  suppressing  as  far  as  possible 
all  the  rest”  (I,  139). 

Selection  goes  on  specifically  on  all  planes  of  mental  activity. 

“To  begin  at  the  bottom,  what  are  our  very  senses  themselves 
but  organs  of  selection”  (I,  284).  “The  mind- selects  again.  It 
chooses  certain  of  the  sensations  to  represent  the  thing  most 
truly,  and  considers  the  rest  as  its  appearances,  modified  by  the 
conditions  of  the  moment”  (I,  285;  cf.  I,  78).  “Out  of  all 
present  sensations  we  notice  mainly  such  as  are  significant  of 
absent  ones;  and  out  of  the  absent  associates  which  these  sug¬ 
gest,  we  again  pick  out  a  few  to  stand  for  the  objective  reality 
par  excellence r  (I,  286).  “It  [thought]  is  interested  in  some 
parts  of  these  objects  to  the  exclusion  of  others,  and  welcomes 


4 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


or  rejects — chooses  from  among  them,  in  a  word — all  the  while” 
(I,  225;  cf.  I,  284). 

Again  aesthetic  unity  is  said  to  be  due  to  the  mental  elimination 
of  discordant  effects  and  “ascending  still  higher,  we  reach  the 
plane  of  Ethics  where  choice  reigns  notoriously  supreme.  An 
act  has  no  ethical  quality  whatever  unless  it  be  chosen  out  of 
several  all  equally  possible”  (I,  287). 

All  of  this  is  nothing  more  than  an  elaboration  of  James’s 
original  thesis,  that  mind  can  be  detected  by  two  tendencies, 
(1)  the  pursuance  of  future  ends,  and  (2)  the  choice  of  means 
for  their  attainment  (I,  8,  11).  Consciousness  is  efficient  in  these 
offices  throughout:  it  is  a  fighter  for  ends  and  is  endowed  with 
causal  efficacy  in  the  fight  (I,  141-143).  There  seems  to  be  no 
doubt  in  James’s  opinion  of  the  mind’s  purposive  character  as  a 
background  for  the  operations  of  choosing  just  described  or  of 
the  mind’s  power  to  enact  what  it  chooses  to  select.  The  point 
at  which  consciousness  makes  itself  directly  felt  as  a  power  is 
in  volition  and  attention.  Here  there  seems  to  be  some  systematic 
ambiguity,  however,  for  we  learn  at  one  place  that  attention  is 
not  a  new  or  mechanical  force,  but  an  effect  produced  by  the 
environment  (I,  450-454),  and  at  another  that  it  is  in  part  a 
force,  spiritual  in  its  essence  (I,  454,  468).  And  so  with  voli¬ 
tion;  for  we  read  that  “will  is  nothing  but  attention”  (I,  447), 
and  that  volition  involves  an  effort  to  attend  and  a  consent  (II, 
568). 

As  a  matter  of  stern  fact  James  admits  that  psychology,  the 
empirical  science,  must  yield  the  question  of  conscious  initiation 
of  process  through  the  will  to  the  realm  of  speculation.  It  is 
more  satisfactory  to  hypothecate,  says  James,  a  consciousness 
that  can  step  in,  through  the  will  to  attend,  and  regulate  the  flow 
of  the  mental  life,  even  if  it  “could  only  be  to  hold  some  one 
ideal  object,  or  part  of  an  object,  a  little  longer  or  a  little  more 
intensely  before  the  mind”  (II,  576).  By  a  faith  grounded  in 
other  than  empirical  or  even  logical  considerations,  then,  con¬ 
sciousness  is  also  an  initiative  agent.  It  is  capable  of  adding 
impetus  out  of  its  storehouse  of  reserve  energy  whenever  the 
odds  are  against  it.  In  detail,  “nerve-currents  ....  must  in  this 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


5 


case  be  supposed  strengthened  by  the  fact  of  their  awaking  one 
consciousness  and  dampened  by  awaking  another.  How  such 
reaction  of  the  consciousness  upon  the  currents  may  occur  must 
remain  at  present  unsolved”  (I,  142). 

Consciousness  is,  then,  primarily  an  actively  directing  agent. 
It  continually  selects  both  among  its  own  processes  and  in¬ 
directly,  through  its  supposed  influence  on  the  nervous  system, 
among  physiological  processes.  This  form  of  initiation,  however, 
is  more  regulative  in  action  than  it  is  wholly  creative. 

R.  S.  Woodworth 
(Mary  A.  Henry) 

Professor  Woodworth  has  recently  written  an  outline  of 
“Dynamic  Psychology”2  The  book  is,  as  the  author  says,  a 
study  in  the  “workings  of  the  mind"  (43).  It  regards  in  an 
active  and  energetic  way  the  causal  relations  of  mind  and  be¬ 
havior.  Those  bodily  instruments  and  organs  which  are  in¬ 
volved  in  the  neural  and  motor  functions  it  conceives  as  “mechan¬ 
isms”  while  the  causes  of  neural  discharge  and  the  motives  and 
springs  of  action,  on  the  other  hand,  it  calls  “drives.”  The  drive 
in  a  machine,  the  author  describes  as  “the  power  applied  to  make 
the  mechanism  go”  (37).  Stimulus  is  drive;  one  part  of  the 
nervous  system  may  drive  another;  the  “inner  tendency”  toward 
reaching  a  goal  is  a  drive;  mental  processes  possess  an  “inner 
dynamics”  (38-43) ;  willing  is  the  development  of  fresh  motive 
power  (149)  ;  reasoning  implies  an  “access  of  energy”  in  an  “ob¬ 
structed  tendency”  (147),  and  the  “higher  and  more  inclusive 
self”  is  capable  of  resolving  inner  conflict  and  so  of  making  the 
individual  free  (152).  So  many  forms  has  the  “drive.”  At 
times  it  is  obviously  physiological,  representing  the  release  or 
the  initiation  of  energy  in  some  part  of  the  nervous  system;  but 
in  other  contexts  it  appears  to  bear  a  direct  reference  to  mind, — 
as  in  the  motive  to  selective  action,  curiosity  in  learning,  in¬ 
terest  sustained  in  objects  and  pursuits,  and  impulses  directed 
toward  the  conquest  of  obstacles. 

This  dynamical  factor,  represented  in  Woodworth’s  “drives,” 

2  Woodworth,  R.  S.,  Dynamic  Psychology,  New  York,  1918. 


6 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


is  not  easy  to  define.  Often  it  appears  to  be  little  more  than 
a  faculty  to  which,  as  a  cause,  observed  facts  are  referred; — so 
the  “motive  forces”  of  the  native  ecjuipment  of  men  and  animals, 
the  “innate  tendencies,”  “instincts,”  and  “special  capacities.” 
Observed  facts  are  referred  to  unknown  forces,  tendencies  and 
potentialities,  which  then  become  hypostatised  as  drives,  not  un¬ 
like  the  traditional  faculties  and  the  mental  powers  and  capacities 
of  Gall  and  Spurzheim.  Because  of  their  conceptual  and  hypo¬ 
thetical  origin,  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether,  or  just  when,  they 
belong  to  “consciousness”  and  when  to  bodily  function.  So  far 
as  mind  is  implied,  Woodworth's  use  of  dynamic  principles  ap¬ 
pears  to  suggest  initiation  and  selection ,  very  much  as  we  have 
found  these  things  in  the  writings  of  William  James.3 


Pierre  Janet 

(Elizabeth  Rutherford) 

A  characteristic  type  of  mental  activity,  a  type  which  has 
appeared  in  various  psychological — and  especially  psychopatho- 
logical — contexts  in  the  last  generation,  is  represented  in  the 
writings  of  Dr.  Pierre  Janet,  a  pupil  of  Charcot’s.  It  appears 
in  Janet's  works  as  early  as  the  8o’s,  where  the  French  physician 
seeks  a  psychological  basis  for  the  symptoms  of  hysteria  and 
allied  disorders;  i.e.,  for  the  “automatic”  phenomena  of  catalepsy, 
somnambulism,  anaesthesia,  and  the  like.4  Janet’s  temper,  as 
well  as  his  training  and  traditions,  has  disposed  him  to  reject 
the  physiological  or  “reflex”  explanation  of  these  disorders,  as 
proposed  by  Haidenhain,  Maudsley,  and  Despine  ( L’autom 
p.  21 ).  He  prefers  a  “psychological”  explanation.  It  is,  as  he 

3  The  influence  of  James  is  everywhere  apparent  in  Woodworth’s  little 
book.  It  may  also  be  that  the  author’s  association  with  Ladd  in  the  “Ele¬ 
ments  of  Physiological  Psychology,” — where  the  causal  efficacy  of  mind  had 
received  a  liberal  interpretation, — inclined  Woodworth  toward  this  form  of 
dynamic  doctrine.  Again,  it  appears  that  this  and  many  other  “genetic” 
accounts  of  mind,  especially  those  prepared  for  educational  purposes,  easily 
turn  to  account  the  biologist’s  dynamic  faculties  of  innate  and  inherited 
capacities,  instincts,  and  powers. 

4  L’automatisme  psychologique ;  essai  de  psychologie  experimentale  sur  les 
formes  inferieures  de  I’activite  humaine,  Paris,  1889. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


7 


thinks,  just  in  these  abnormal  states  that  the  simplest  and  most 
rudimentary  facts  of  mind  come  to  light;  and  for  the  under¬ 
standing  of  them,  he  appeals  to  a  distinction  many  times  recog¬ 
nized  in  the  history  of  philosophy,  and  specifically  formulated 
by  Maine  de  Miran;5  the  distinction,  namely,  between  bare  sen¬ 
sation  (‘da  sensation  sans  conscience,  san  moi  capable  de  l'aper- 
cevoir”)  and  the  self  or  person  (“une  personne,  un  moi  constitue 
un,  simple,  identique  ....  la  conscience  complete”). 

Now  it  is  this  “conscience  complete,”  the  “personal  conscious¬ 
ness,”  and  its  defects  in  disease  and  disorder  which  form  the 
basis  of  Janet’s  psychology  of  the  abnormal.6  That  is  the  active 
thing  which  unifies  and  organizes  experience.  When  the  organ¬ 
izer  is  absent  or  disturbed,  the  morbid  features  of  hysteria,  hyp¬ 
nosis,  catalepsy,  and  the  like,  appear.  In  such  grave  states  as 
catalepsy,  the  personality  is  wholly  wanting;  mind  is  reduced  to 
a  state  “purement  affective,  aux  sensations  et  aux  images.” 
From  this  total  “automatism”  of  catalepsy,  Janet  proceeds  to  build 
up  the  organized  mind  through  the  incomplete  syntheses  dis¬ 
played  in  somnambulistic  and  suggestible  states,  and  in  the  par¬ 
tial  automatism  of  subconscious  acts  and  local  anaesthesias.  As 
the  exposition  proceeds,  the  antithesis  grows  between  automatism, 
the  sheer  existence  of  sensations  and  images,  and  the  synthetizing 
operation  of  personality.  The  latter  is  not  a  mere  principle  of 
association ;  it  is  “an  activity  which  synthetizes  at  each  instant  of 
life  the  various  psychological  phenomena  and  which  forms  our 
personalized  apprehension  (perception  personnelle)  of  things” 
( L’autom .,  307).  More  and  more  the  notion  of  a  power  or 
faculty,  as  opposed  to  the  passivity  of  “mere  sensation,”  de- 
velopes  in  the  exposition,  and  more  and  more  it  appears  that 
the  mental  disorders  are  not  primarily  disorders  of  process  or  of 

5  In  Anthropologie  ( CEuvres  inedites,  1859,  iii),  362,  405. 

6  Janet  acknowledges  (L’autom.,  399)  an  anticipation  of  his  general  doc¬ 
trine  of  ruptured  personality  in  an  anonymous  brochure  of  1855:  Seconde 
lettre  de  gros  Jean  d  son  eveque  au  sujet  des  tables  parlantes,  des  possessions 
et  autres  diableries.  Spiritistic  exhibitions  are  here  explained  by  the  as¬ 
sumption  that  the  organism  is  directed  “par  intelligence  sans  Intervention 
de  la  volonte.  In  his  acknowledgment  Janet  suggests, — perhaps  more  point¬ 
edly  than  he  realizes, — the  derivation  of  his  dynamic  principle  from  the 
Wolffian  faculties. 


8 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


the  automatic  ligation  or  “association”  of  processes,  but  rather 
defects  or  “lesions”  of  a  power  (puissance),  “la  faculte  de  syn- 
thetiser  les  sensations  en  perception  personnelle  {ibid.,  314), 
which  lead  to  a  real  disorganization  or  “dis-assembling”  (des- 
agregation)  of  mind. 

In  his  later  works7  Janet  applies  in  various  directions  this 
central  notion  of  a  synthetizing  activity  which  is  weakened,  dis¬ 
turbed,  divided  or  broken  down  in  hysteria,  “double  personality,” 
psychaesthenic  states,  neurotic  conditions,  and  so  on.  There  is 
apparent  a  tendency,  as  time  goes  on,  to  increase  the  emphasis  up¬ 
on  neurological  descriptions, — as  in  the  inception  of  hysteria, 
which  is  defined  as  a  “depression,  an  exhaustion  of  the  higher 
functions  of  the  encephalon”'  ( Major  S.,  333)  and  in  the  use  of 
such  vitalistic  terms  as  “nervous  strength,”  “nervous  tension,” 
anatomical  “system”  and  “associations’  (ibid.  180).  Moreover, 
the  frequent  use  of  “dissociation,”  “mental  depression,”  “tension” 
and  changing  “mental  levels”  has  a  less  dynamic  sound  than  the 
older  expositions.  Nevertheless,  the  main  conception  of  “per¬ 
sonal  synthesis’  remains.  It  is  a  dynamic  concept  which  is  now 
very  widely  used  in  the  pathological  literature,  where  it  stands 
closely  related  to  the  notions  of  “dissociation”  and  of  the  “sub¬ 
conscious.”  It  is  in  its  essence  a  faculty  of  organization;  though 
it  inclines  here  and  there  (as  when  related  to  the  will)  to 
assume  the  role  of  a  creator. 

Henry  Bergson 
(Coleman  R.  Griffith) 

When  we  turn  to  Bergson  we  pass,  of  course,  beyond  em¬ 
pirical  psychology  to  a  general,  voluntaristic  account  of  the  uni¬ 
verse;  but  Bergson’s  philosophy  is  so  intimately  bound  up  with 
historical  trends  in  psychology  and  in  the  science  of  life  that  his 
exposition  of  “creative  evolution”  falls  naturally  under  our  pres¬ 
ent  process  of  sampling.  We  may  leave  aside  the  philosophical 

7  The  mental  state  of  hystericals,  etc.,  (Corson,  C.  R.,  trans.),  New  York, 
1901,  pp.  492,  502,  527;  Nevroses  et  idees  fixes  (2  vols.),  Paris,  1904,  1908; 
Les  obsessions  et  la  psychasthenie  (2  vols.),  Paris,  1903;  The  major  symp¬ 
toms  of  hysteria,  New  York,  1907,  31 1,  332;  Subconscious  phenomena,  Boston, 
1910,  53-70. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


9 


antecedents  and  implications  of  Bergson’s  theories;  but  we  shall 
have  to  consider  the  relations  of  his  system,  first,  to  that  psychol¬ 
ogy  of  the  abnormal  which  has  for  many  years  in  France  capital¬ 
ized  the  unconscious  and  the  automatic  and,  secondly,  to  the  cur¬ 
rent  vitalistic  doctrines  of  the  biologists. 

In  Bergson’s  conception  of  mind  we  seem  to  see  Janet’s  funda¬ 
mental  antithesis  of  “personal  consciousness”  and  “automatism” 
spread  out  upon  the  whole  wide  canvas  of  the  universe.  At  the 
centre  of  things  is  life,  the  creative  impulse,  which  integrates, 
organizes,  constructs,  constantly  creates.  Life  is  also  mind :  it 
is  will :  it  is  struggle :  it  is  opposed  to  matter.  “Consciousness 
has  had  a  narrow  escape  from  being  itself  ensnared.  Matter, 
enfolding  it,  bends  it  to  its  own  automatism,  lulls  it  to  sleep  in 
its  own  unconsciousness,”  The  history  of  life  is  the  history  of 
the  struggle  of  consciousness  to  free  itself  from  “automatism  and 
unconsciousness.”  “Freedom  is  riveted  in  a  chain.  .  .  .  With  man 
alone  a  sudden  bound  is  made;  the  chain  is  broken.”8  But  mind 
does  more  than  struggle:  it  produces  the  novel.  “How  can  we 
distinguish  the  force  of  mind,  if  it  exists,  from  other  forces 
save  in  this,  that  it  has  the  faculty  of  drawing  from  itself  more 
than  it  contains.”9  “Notre  volonte  fait  deja  ce  miracle.  Toute 
oeuvre  humaine  qui  renferme  une  part  d’invention,  tout  acte  volon- 
taire  qui  renferme  une  part  de  liberte,  tout  mouvement  d’un 
organisme  qui  manifeste  de  la  spontaneite,  apporte  quelque 
chose  nouveau  dans  le  monde.”10 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  for  Bergson,  creation  is  the  primary 
and  the  chief  function  of  mind.  The  dynamical  principle  in  con¬ 
sciousness,  however,  also  selects  and  organizes.  In  both  forms 
of  expression  of  the  elan  vital instinct  and  intelligence,  materials 
used  by  the  creative  energy  are  selected  to  a  given  end  and  also 
organized.  “L’instinet  acheve  est  une  faculte  d’utiliser  et  meme 
de  construire  des  instruments  organises;  Intelligence  achevee 

8  Bergson,  H.,  Mind-energy ;  lectures  and  essays,  N.  Y.,  1920,  pp.  25,  26. 

9  Ibid.,  27;  cf.  devolution  creatrice,  4th  ed.,  Paris,  1908,  p.  273;  Time  and 
free  will:  an  essay  on  the  immediate  data  of  consciousness,  London,  1910, 
1 40- 143. 

10  devolution  creatrice,  260. 


10 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


'  y ^ 


est  la  faculte  de  fabriquer  et  d'employer  des  instruments  inor- 
ganises.”11  Especially  as  regards  intelligence,  Bergson  explains 
that  “la  fonction  essentielle  .  .  .  sera  done  de  demeler,  dans  des 
circonstances  quelconques,  le  moyen  de  se  tirer  d’affaire.  Elle 
cherchera  ce  qui  peut  le  mieux  servir,  e’est-a-dire  s’inserer  dans 
le  cadre  propose.”12 

Bergson’s  relation  to  vitalism  has  been  much  discussed.  Here 
it  calls  for  only  a  comment.  To  “mechanism”  the  philosopher  of 
creative  evolution  opposes  “dynamism,”  a  principle  which  is 
allied  to  vitalism  so  soon  as  it  suggests  a  creative  force  in  life. 
Dynamism  is,  however,  more  ambitious  than  most  forms  of 
vitalistic  doctrine  because  it  is  based  upon  a  dialectic  of  mind 
and  matter.  This  dialectic  leads  it  straight  toward  the  problems 
of  knowledge  and  reality.  It  seeks,  that  is  to  say,  to  interpret 
the  whole  universe  in  terms  of  vital, — i.e.,  conscious, — creation.13 

Sigmund  Freud 
(Annette  Baron) 

The  dynamical  principles  of  Freud  are  of  the  same  general 
character  as  those  which  we  have  found  in  Janet  and  Bergson. 
The  main  emphasis,  to  be  sure,  is  differently  placed.  Bergson’s 
chief  force  is  the  vital  principle,  Janet’s  the  personal  conscious¬ 
ness,  while  Freud’s  may  be  said  to  be  the  “vital,  personal  un¬ 
conscious.”  The  main  spring  of  Freud’s  unconscious  is  the  vital 
impulse,  the  libido ,  a  force  which  virtually  becomes  personalized, 
even  personified,  under  repression.  So  are  performed  the  tasks 
of  selecting,  condensing,  translating,  symbolizing  and  censoring. 
“The  unconscious  is  the  real  psychic.  ...  It  must  be  accepted  as 
the  general  basis  of  the  psychic  life.  .  .  .  Everything  psychic 
exists  as  unconscious.”14  This  “real  psychic”  Freud  constantly 
describes  in  terms  of  “psychic  force,”  “psychic  energy,”  and 

11  Ibid,  152. 

12  Ibid.,  1 63. 

13  A  competent  and  informing  review  and  critcism  of  the  psychological  im¬ 
plications  of  vitalism,  in  its  various  classical  forms,  may  be  found  in  H.  C. 
Warren’s  article  “Mechanism  versus  vitalism,  in  the  domain  of  psychology,” 
Philos.  Rev.,  1918,  xxvii,  597-615. 

14  Freud,  S.,  The  interpretation  of  dreams,  N.  Y.,  1913,  486,  487. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


ii 


“psychic  effort.”  The  dynamic  characteristics  are  applied  to  two 
“kinds”  or  “systems”  of  the  unconscious;  (i)  to  the  “Unc.  sys¬ 
tem”  where  wishes  press  for  fulfillment,  and  (2)  to  the  “Forec. 
system,”  which  stands  like  a  “screen’1  or  censor  between  the 
exigent  wish  and  its  conscious  discharge.  The  second  system  not 
only  “bars  access  to  consciousness”  but  also  controls  bodily  move¬ 
ment  and  emits  “mobile  energy,”  a  part  of  which  is  attention.15 

Thus  we  find  in  Freud  an  exceedingly  elaborate  and  exceeding¬ 
ly  hypothetical  account  of  mind  written  in  terms  of  force.  The 
account  was  first  designed  for  the  understanding  and  the  relief 
of  certain  mental  disorders;  but  later  it  was  variously  applied  to 
dreams,  humor,  myth,  lapses  of  speech  and  thought,  the  origin 
and  development  of  society,  and  the  springs  of  human  action. 
As  regards  the  use  of  dynamic  agencies,  Freud’s  system  lays 
more  stress  upon  the  conflict  of  forces16  than  we  find  in  the  ex¬ 
positions  of  the  French  philosophers  and  physicians.  The  minds 
of  Janet  and  Bergson,  e.g.,  are,  as  we  have  seen,  essentially  con¬ 
structive;  while  Freud’s  mind  is  set  against  itself.  It  is  torn  by 
strife  between  the  individual  and  society.  In  the  great  works  of 
genius,  to  be  sure,  mind  is  creative;  but  even  here  creation  ap¬ 
pears  as  a  release,  almost  a  by-product,  of  conflict. 

William  McDougall 
(Carl  Rahn) 

When  we  turn  from  Janet  and  Bergson  to  McDougall17  to 
discover  in  what  respects  his  conception  of  “soul”  partakes  of  a 
“dynamic”  character,  we  note  that  his  notion  of  mental  activity 
developes  in  a  fairly  definite  way  toward  “creation”  and  toward 
“organization.”  By  applying  the  method  of  immanent  criticism 
to  his  presentation,  we  find  that  there  runs  throughout  an  im- 

15  Ibid.,  488. 

16  “We  explain  it  [the  psychic  fission]  dynamically  by  the  conflict  of  op¬ 
posing  mental  forces,  we  recognize  in  it  the  result  of  an  active  striving  of  each 
mental  complex  against  the  other.”  Amer.  J.  of  Psychol.,  1910,  xxi,  194. 
Cf.  Vorlesungen  zur  Einfiihrung  in  die  Psychoanalyse,  Leipzig  und  Wien, 
1918,  64. 

17  McDougall,  W.,  Body  and  mind;  a  history  and  a  defense  of  animism, 
New  York,  1911. 


12 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


plicit  distinction  between  the  physical  conditions  for  the  occur¬ 
rence,  rise  and  subsidence  of  mental  processes  and  the  physical 
correlates  of  the  same  processes.  As  to  the  physical  conditions , 
McDougall  implies  that  it  is  when  bodily  processes  come  to  a 
“stasis”  that  the  “corresponding”  meanings,  belonging  to  the 
psychical  order,  arise  as  conscious  perception,  thought,  and  striv¬ 
ing.  As  to  the  physical  correlates ,  we  learn  that  “meaning  has 
no  immediate  physical  correlate  in  the  brain  that  could  serve 
as  its  substitute  and  discharge  its  functions.”  Meanings  are 
“products  in  consciousness  of  a  purely  psychical  activity”  (31 1), 
and  they  are  the  factors  which  awaken  within  us  the  appropriate 
emotions  and  psychical  impulses  or  conations. 

Under  the  condition,  then,  of  stasis  there  becomes  operative  a 
“psychical  activity”  that  has  no  immediate  physical  correlates; 
and  the  “products”  of  this  psychical  activity  are  meanings,  values 
and  conations.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  mind  is  “creative”  for 
McDougall.  This  creative  activity  is  conceived  to  operate  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  “psychical  dispositions  that  have  been  built  up  in 
the  course  of  the  experience  of  the  race.”  Being  built  up,  they 
determine  further  development  and — may  we  infer? — would 
thus  constitute,  collectively,  a  psychical  entelechy  with  an  histor¬ 
ical  development. 

With  respect  to  McDougall’s  conception  of  mind  as  organizer, 
we  find  first,  that  the  soul  is  invoked,  after  the  manner  of  Lotze, 
because  “the  fact  of  the  unity  of  consciousness  correlated  with 
the  physical  manifold  of  brain-processes  cannot  be  rendered  in¬ 
telligible  without  the  postulation  of  some  ground  of  unity  other 
than  the  brain  or  material  organism”  (356).  As  organizer, 
the  function  of  the  soul  is  two-fold :  ( 1 )  it  gives  unity  to  the 

manifold  of  sensation-processes  and  (2)  it  “plays  an  essential 
role  in  the  building  up  of  the  organization  of  the  brain”  (279). 
Concerning  (1),  the  organization  of  sensations,  it  is  simply  to  be 
noted  that  the  independent  sensory  processes  are  unified  by  their 
integration  into  “meaning,”  which  is  the  product  of  “psychical 
activity.”  Concerning  the  manner  in  which  (2),  the  “organiza¬ 
tion  of  the  brain,”  is  affected  by  psychical  activity,  we  are  told 
that  “the  product  of  this  psychical  activity”  (the  meanings) 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


13 


“stirs  up”  the  psychic  impulses  or  conation  “without  which  no 
action  is  initiated  or  sustained”  (31 1).  The  facts,  then,  are  said 
to  point  directly  toward  the  view  that  conation  or  psychical  effort 
really  intervenes  in  the  course  of  the  psychical  processes  of  the 
brain.  And  it  may  be  plausibly  maintained  that  all  other  modes 
of  consciousness  serve  but  to  guide  or  to  determine  the  incidence 
of  conation,  the  primary  and  most  fundamental  form  of  psychical 
activity.  This  organizing  of  physical  processes  in  the  brain  by 
psychical  conations  is  conceived  to  be  a  process  of  “guidance 
without  work,”  consisting  essentially  in  a  “concentration  of 
nervous  energy  from  places  of  low  potential  into  one  system  of 
neurons  where  the  potential  is  raised  to  a  high  level  (278), — 
though  McDougall  admits  that  the  concentration  occurs  “in  a 
way  which  we  cannot  clearly  define.” 

III. 

We  find,  then,  dynamical  principles  conceived  and  applied  in  a 
variety  of  ways  in  current  psychologies.  For  Bergson  and  for 
McDougall  mind  is  a  creator;  for  James  and  for  Woodworth  it 
initiates  and  it  drives  toward  a  conclusion.  The  conception  of 
mental  powers  held  by  James  and  by  Bergson  also  includes 
choice  and  selection  in  a  prominent  way;  while  McDougall  joins 
Janet  in  regarding  organization  and  unification  as  essential  func¬ 
tions  of  a  dynamical  mind.  Freud’s  libido  is  also  a  driving, 
initiating  force,  to  which  is  added  the  active  government  of 
thought  and  behavior  by  the  repressing  and  selecting  power  of 
the  censor.  Mind,  therefore,  in  our  writers  is  active  and  dynamic 
in  so  far  as  it  creates,  initiates,  organizes,  selects  and  governs.18 

When  we  consider  the  wide  adoption  throughout  psychology 
of  one  or  another  of  the  forms  and  direction  of  force,  as  por¬ 
trayed  in  these  writings,  we  are  led  to  acknowledge  that  dynamism 
has  in  our  own  generation  exerted  a  profound  influence  upon 
the  science.  There  seem  to  be  two  or  three  special  reasons  for 
the  psychologist’s  recent  appeal  to  force.  The  first  lies  in  mental 

18  These  same  dynamical  principles  have  also  been  used  in  systematic  set¬ 
tings  by  Lotze,  Brentano,  Lipps,  Stumpf,  Fouillee  and  Wundt,  and  more 
casually  by  G.  S.  Hall,  J.  R.  Angell,  E.  L.  Thorndike,  and  many  others. 


14 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


pathology,  which  stood  for  a  long  time  in  a  stagnating  condition. 
Its  neurological  basis  was  well  nigh  sterile,  and  its  psychology 
was  jejune  and  unproductive.  There  is  no  doubt  that  its  specu¬ 
lative  use  of  mind  as  a  theatre  of  forces,  producing,  organizing, 
and  repressing,  has  injected  into  it  new  life.  Its  present  state 
suggests  the  quickening  in  the  sciences  of  life  induced  by  the 
principle  of  natural  selection.  It  may  be  that  now,  as  then,  a 
long  period  of  speculative  fervor  will  be  followed  by  serious 
empirical  studies.  The  next  subject  after  medicine  to  profit  from 
dynamism  is  the  humanistic  interpretation  of  the  facts  of  mind. 
A  unitary,  enduring  and  creative  mind  has  always — since  its 
“discovery” — been  a  solace  to  mankind.  McDougalfs  eager  sup¬ 
port  of  the  psychical  researchers  and  Bergson’s  sanction  of  moral 
“freedom”  are  significant  indications.  Neither  can  we  pass  over 
the  interest  of  the  student  of  behavior  in  the  fruits  of  dynamism. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  an  account  of  bodily  performance,  whether 
of  the  animal  or  of  man,  of  the  child  or  of  the  adult,  of  the  normal 
or  of  the  deranged,  is  rendered  vastly  more  simple  and  convincing 
by  the  admission  of  a  principle  of  creation,  organization  and 
direction.  Much  that  would  otherwise  fall  to  observation  and 
to  logic  is  more  elegantly  done  by  a  force  or  power.  “Instincts,” 
“capacities,”  and  “intelligences”  can  thus  be  hypostatized  and 
made  to  serve  as  surrogates  for  facts.  The  temptation  toward 
dynamism  in  psychology  bears  more  than  a  superficial  resemblance 
to  the  lure  of  vitalistic  “causes”  in  biology.  It  is  the  same  tempta¬ 
tion  under  slightly  different  guises.  It  is,  however,  curious  to 
observe  that  it  has  become  especially  attractive  in  both  forms 
just  at  the  moment  when  physics  is  inclined  to  reject  dynamical 
concepts. 

To  separate  fact  and  hypothesis  is  not  always  easy.  I  be¬ 
lieve,  however,  that  it  is  possible  to  distinguish,  in  a  general 
way,  those  properties  and  offices  of  mind  which  are  subject  to 
observation  from  our  explanatory  principles  which  involve  force 
and  which  are  causally  used  to  account  for  the  facts. 

Let  us  start  with  the  psychology  of  process, — a  persistent  at¬ 
tempt  to  discover  by  direct  inspection  mental  factors  in  the  flux 
of  experience.  This  kind  of  inspection  has,  as  it  appears  to  me, 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


15 


brought  to  light  four  significant  facts  regarding  the  constitution 
and  the  offices  of  mind.  ( i )  There  are  mental  processes  which 
are  amenable  to  description,  to  arrangement  in  systems,  and  to 
classification.  They  belong  to  a  unique  order,  not  reducible  to 
the  objects  and  processes  of  physics  and  physiology.  Again 
(2)  these  processes  stand  organized  in  unique  constellations,  and 
they  follow  each  other  in  sequences  which  are  not  duplicated  in  the 
physical  orders.  (3)  The  organized  processes  carry  a  meaning, 
i.e.,  they  make  reference  to  existence  of  other  orders.  As 
McDougall  says,  they  are  in  this  aspect  unique.  (4)  These  or¬ 
ganized  processes  which  bear  meanings  do,  when  conjoined  with 
bodily  processes,  accomplish  various  ends ,  they  operate  in  various 
directions,  they  fulfil  functions. 

So  far,  as  I  think,  we  are  on  the  level  of  empirical  observa¬ 
tion;  and  so  far  we  seem  to  stand  in  no  need  of  any  dynamic 
principle  to  be  imported  into  mind.  For  the  accomplishment,  the 
operation,  the  function,  whether  it  be  the  production  of 
knowledge,  the  preservation  of  life,  internal  or  environmental 
adjustment,  or  the  valuation  of  objects  and  of  conduct,  the  only 
contribution  which  mind  is  observed  to  make  is  meaning, — memo¬ 
rial  meaning  or  perceptual  meaning,  existence  meaning,  or  value 
meaning,  anticipation  or  reflection.  If  the  accomplishment  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  function  or  a  performance,  then  it  is  always,  as  it 
appears,  a  psychosomatic  function,  a  performance  which  involves 
bodily  terms  and  mental  terms.  The  term  “mental"  function 
(unless  it  refers  to-  the  fact  of  meaning)  seems  to  me  to  be  with¬ 
out  significance.  Nothing  like  energy  is  observed  in  mental 
processes  or  in  their  organization;  and  meaning  belongs  to  a 
wholly  different  category  from  force.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
nervous  system  and  the  muscles  are  obviously  designed  for  the 
reception,  concentration,  storage,  and  discharge  of  energy.  If 
dynamical  factors  are  required  for  the  explanation  of  the  facts  of 
growth,  derangement  and  behavior,  the  bodily  parts  and  pro¬ 
cesses  involved  in  the  psychosomatic  functions  would  seem  to 
offer  the  appropriate  vehicle  for  an  active  or  dynamical  cause. 

The  dynamists  are  obviously  right  in  their  contention  that 


i6 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


mind  is  centrally  and  essentially  concerned  in  disease,  in  organic 
performance  and  adjustment,  and  in  the  development  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  and  of  the  race.  But  to  say  that  it  is  dynamically  in¬ 
volved,  is  to  go  beyond  the  facts.  The  contribution  of  meaning 
or  of  reference  appears  to  me  to  be  the  great  and  unique  con¬ 
tribution  of  mind,  the  contribution  which  makes  the  psychoso¬ 
matic  functions  different  both  in  kind  and  in  range  from  the 
physiological  performances  of  the  body. 

At  any  rate,  if  a  mental  force  is  to  be  postulated  and  is  to  be 
used  to  explain  the  observations  of  the  pathologist  and  of  the  stu¬ 
dent  of  behavior,  it  should  be  recognized  that  such  a  postulate  is 
a  sheer  hypothesis,  proposed  only  for  the  temporary  purposes  of 
explanation.  So  Freud  seems  to  regard  his  elaborate  “uncon¬ 
scious.”  To  look  upon  such  a  principle  phenomenologically  would 
be  like  looking  into  the  ether  for  the  lines  of  force  of  a  magnetic 
field  or  for  elastic  fingers  reaching  out  from  the  sun  to  hold  the 
earth  in  the  clutches  of  gravity.  This  confusion  of  hypothesis 
with  observed  and  verifiable  fact  is  extremely  common  within 
psychology  today.  It  has  led  to  an  illegitimate  substitution  of 
forces  and  faculties  for  the  empirical  existences  of  mind  and  in 
so  doing  it  has  impaired  the  methodology  of  the  science. 


SOME  NEGLECTED  ASPECTS  OF  A  HISTORY 

OF  PSYCHOLOGY 

By  Coleman  R.  Griffith 

Psychology  stands  in  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  sciences  of  life 
and  to  the  physical  sciences,  for  it  is  one  of  the  youngest  of 
Philosophy’s  children  and,  on  that  account,  has  fallen  heir,  as 
do  the  successive  members  of  any  growing  family,  to  a  number 
of  family  treasures,  some  good,  some  bad,  and  some  indifferent. 
Among  other  things,  it  has  inherited  from  the  physical  sciences 
a  well-rounded  methodology  and  a  refined  laboratory  technique; 
and  from  the  sciences  of  life,  a  “genetic”  way  of  regarding  mind 
in  its  relation  to  life.  Moreover,  in  the  near  future,  some  one  will 
write  a  history  of  the  development  of  scientific  concepts  and  it  will 
then  be  discovered  that  psychology  has  fallen  heir,  also,  to  scien¬ 
tific  ways  of  regarding  the  world  at  large,  ways  that  became 
established  a  hundred  years  or  so  before  mind  was  brought 
into  the  laboratory. 

Now  when  psychology  began  to  use  these  methodological  and 
other  heritages  from  the  physical  and  the  biological  sciences  in 
an  attempt  to  understand  mind,  the  opportunities  for  research 
became  so  great  and  the  problems  so  insistent  that  the  investi¬ 
gators  of  mind  have  been  urged  on  to  the  present  movement  by 
nothing  save  the  enchantment  of  their  own  productivity.  Psy¬ 
chology  became,  over  night,  a  realm  of  laboratory  adventure. 
And  within  forty  years  of  the  founding  of  the  first  laboratory, 
general  science  is  presented  with  the  spectacle  of  a  discipline 
whose  facts  already  extend  beyond  the  compass  of  encyclopedic 
volumes. 

So  rapid,  in  fact,  has  been  the  growth  of  the  science,  and  so 
absorbing  are  its  demands  for  the  immediate  future,  that  an 
adequate  account  of  its  genesis,  a  serious  historical  survey 
of  the  path  by  which  it  has  come,  is  not  a  part  of  its  immediate 
program.  The  psychologist  who  is  at  all  historically-minded, 


i8 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


when  trying  to  gain  a  perspective  in  his  science,  finds  himself  in 
the  peculiar  position  of  the  man  who  wakes  in  a  strange  place 
and  endeavors  to  comprehend  his  situation  by  taking  a  careful 
inventory  of  the  furnishings  of  his  room.  If  the  science  has  come, 
by  virtue  of  its  achievements,  to  maturity,  it  must  begin  to 
realize  that  even  scientific  adventure  is  hedged  about  with  his¬ 
torical  restrictions  to  be  understood  and  accepted  before  the 
adventure  itself  becomes  of  real  significance.1  Psychology  is  not 
merely  the  accumulation  of  fact  in  monthly  journals;  it  is  rather 
a  product  of  the  liberal  past  and  a  starting  point  for  a  productive 
future.  The  historian  of  psychology  must  tell  us  what  psycholo¬ 
gy  is,  in  its  largest  aspects,  by  telling  us  whence  its  methods  and 
concepts  have  come  and  what  these  mean  for  its  further  devel¬ 
opment. 

We  have,  at  the  present  time,  no  history  of  psychology.  That 
is  to  say,  there  is  no  written  record  of  the  genesis  and  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  discipline  as  it  stands.2  Our  historical  researches  are 
limited  to  the  introductory  pages  of  doctoral  theses  and  other 
major  pieces  of  research.3  There  are,  of  course,  histories  of 

1  An  expanding  interest  in  the  history  of  science,  in  this  country  as  well 
as  in  Europe,  is  a  token  of  growth  and  maturity.  It  may  be  traced  in  the 
following  papers:  Science,  1915,  41,  358-360;  1915,  42,  746-760;  1919,  49, 
330-331;  1919,  49,  447-448;  1919,  49,  49 7;  1919,  49,  66-68;  1920,  52,  496;  1920, 
52,  559,562;  1921,  53,  122;  1921,  53,  163-164;  1921,  53,  257-258.  That  the  move¬ 
ment  is  being  taken  seriously  is  further  shown  by  several  papers  appearing 
in  The  Scientific  Monthly.  See,  e.g.,  Gregory,  H.  E.,  History  of  geology, 
The  Sci.  Mo.,  1921,  12,  97-126;  Woodruff,  L.  L.,  History  of  biology,  ibid.,  289- 
309;  Bumstead,  H.  R.,  The  history  of  physics,  ibid.,  289-309;  Brown,  E.  W., 
The  history  of  mathematics,  ibid.,  385-413. 

2  We  are,  of  course,  using  the  term  “history”  in  the  sense  of  a  written 
account  and  not  by  way  of  reference  to  the  events  of  which  an  account  can 
be  written. 

3  A  very  few  illustrations  from  a  single  source  will  show  the  temper  of 
such  historical  surveys ;  Sharp,  S.  E.,  Individual  psychology :  a  study  in 
psychological  method,  Amer.  J.  of  Psychol.,  1899,  10,  1-20;  Whipple,  G.  M., 
An  analytic  study  of  the  memory  image,  etc.,  ibid.,  1901,  12,  409ft ;  Murray, 
E.,  A  qualitative  analysis  of  tickling,  ibid.,  1908,  19,  32off ;  Geissler,  L.  R., 
The  measurement  of  attention,  ibid.,  1909,  20,  473-502;  Ruckmick,  C.  A.,  The 
role  of  kinaesthesis  in  the  perception  of  rhythm,  ibid.,  1913,  24,  305-314; 
Boring,  E.  G.,  The  sensations  of  the  alimentary  canal,  ibid.,  1915,  26,  2-5; 
Dallenbach,  K.  M.,  The  history  and  derivation  of  the  word  “Function”  as  a 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


19 


philosophy  in  which  the  central  theme  is  mind  or  sense-percep¬ 
tion  or  mental  activity.  One  cannot  neglect  such  accounts  and 
neither  can  one  forget  altogether  certain  other  historical  surveys 
of  the  life  and  work  of  men  who  may,  under  protest,  be  desig¬ 
nated  psychologists ;  but  the  discipline  has  at  present  no  searching 
and  sympathetic  survey  of  the  events  and  ways  of  thinking  that 
have  led  up  to  and  that  have  grown  into  our  present  conception 
of  psychology,  its  problems,  and  its  methods. 

Of  254  pages  which  Dessoir4  devotes  to  an  outline  of  the  his¬ 
tory  of  psychology,  148  describe  events  prior  to  1800,  and  the 
remainder  of  the  book  barely  takes  us  beyond  Herbart.  Brett5 
gets  as  far  as  Fechner  at  the  end  of  900  pages.  Villa6  de¬ 
votes  some  50  pages  to  a  diary  of  the  17th,  18th  and  19th  cen¬ 
turies,  while  the  rest  of  the  book, — nearly  350  pages, — draws 
upon  the  history  of  philosophy  for  a  large  part  of  its  discussion. 
The  first  volume  of  Baldwin's7  history  goes  as  far  as  Hobbes, 
while  the  second  volume  barely  enters  into  the  days  of  “mental 
chronometry"  and  the  “James-Lange  theory."  Klemm8  has  done 
better  than  some  of  the  others;  but  even  so  close  a  follower  of 
Wundt  as  he  has  hardly  entered  into  modern  psychology  and  then 
has  looked  back  by  way  of  retrospection.  Aside  from  the 
Wundtian  bias,  Klemm  has  written  useful  prolegomena  to  a  his¬ 
tory  of  psychology. 

Histories  grow  and  the  past  changes  as  it  is  seen  in  the  light 
of  new  achievements.  The  cosmopolitan  interest  of  the  present- 
day  psychologist  is  evidence  enough  that  the  science  is  broader 
than  any  existing  account  of  its  origin  and  of  its  growth.  Who, 
for  example,  would  attempt  to  describe,  in  advance  of  serious  his- 

systematic  term  in  psychology,  ibid.,  1915,  26,  473-484;  Woods,  E.  L.,  An 
experimental  analysis  of  the  process  of  recognizing,  ibid.,  1915,  26,  314-317; 
Rogers,  A.  S.,  An  analytic  study  of  visual  perception,  ibid.,  1917,  28,  519-538. 

4  Dessoir,  M.,  Outlines  of  the  history  of  psychology,  (tr.,  D.  Fisher),  1912. 

5  Brett,  G.  S.,  A  history  of  psychology,  ancient  and  patristic,  3  vols.,  London, 
1912-1921. 

6  Villa,  G.,  Contemporary  psychology,  (tr.,  H.  Manacorda),  London,  1903. 

7  Baldwin,  J.  M.,  History  of  psychology,  2  vols.,  London,  1913. 

8  Klemm,  O.,  A  history  of  psychology,  (tr.,  C.  Wilm  and  R.  Pintner),  New 
York,  1914. 


20 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


torieal  research,  the  mental  and  physical  matrix  which  has 
stamped  in  so  curious  a  fashion  that  current  explanatory  psy¬ 
chology  known  as  Freudianism?  Of  the  ways  of  regarding  the 
social  mind,  of  behaviorism  and  functionalism,  of  the  renewed 
interest  in  a  “psychology  of  the  soul,”  and  of  scores  of  small 
problems,  we  are  inclined  to  speak  retrospectively  with  a  super¬ 
ficial  knowledge  only  of  the  historical  facts.  In  all  of  these  mat¬ 
ters,  we  frequently  refer,  of  course,  by  way  of  historical  per¬ 
spective  to  men  and  to  events;  but  we  have,  as  yet,  no  historical 
research  in  the  field  at  large  comparable  in  spirit  to  a  recent 
small  but  choice  example  from  Titehener.9 

If,  as  we  have  already  said,  the  science  is  to  assume  the  re¬ 
sponsibilities  of  maturity,  it  must  turn  seriously  to  its  history, 
for  such  a  quest  usually  tempers  the  ardor  of  youth  but  at  the 
same  time  saves  from  stolidity.  Now,  if  there  is  to  be  a  history 
of  psychology  and  if  we  are  to  speak  intelligently  of  it,  we  must 
know  upon  what  principles  it  is  to  be  established.  What  sig¬ 
nificance,  for  example,  will  a  different  interpretation  of  the  two 
terms  “psychology”  and  “history”  have  for  any  statement  of  the 
problem  and  course  of  historical  research  in  the  mental  sciences? 
Obviously,  a  history  adequate  to  the  science  need  not  be  three- 
fourths  philosophy  and  neither  must  it  be  a  history  for  purposes 
of  propaganda  in  favor  of  any  particular  school  of  psychologists. 

What,  then,  do  we  mean  by  “history”  and  by  “psychology”? 
Let  us  first  come  to  terms  with  “history.”  We  are  not  here 
proposing  a  philosophy  of  history  and  we  shall,  therefore,  be 
brief  and  somewhat  schematic  in  describing  at  least  two  possible 
conceptions  of  the  nature  of  history.10  The  first,  which  is  the 
more  venerable  of  the  two,  maintains  that  history  is  a  chrono¬ 
logical  account  of  all  that  has  occurred.  That  is  to  say,  men 
sit  down  and,  assuming  a  temporal  sequence,  proceed  to  write 

9  Titehener,  E.  B.,  Bretano  and  Wundt:  Empirical  and  experimental  psychol¬ 
ogy,  Amer.  J.  of  Psychol.,  1921,  32,  108-120. 

10  We  do  not  care  to  have  it  appear  that  we  are  dealing  lightly  or  too 
naively  with  a  question  that  has  for  years  vexed  the  historian.  He  is,  ap¬ 
parently,  as  sensitive  to  a  statement  of  the  problem  of  history  as  the  psycholo¬ 
gist  is  to  a  statement  of  the  problem  of  psychology.  This  part  of  the 
science  of  history  can  be  traced  in  the  various  historical  journals. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


21 


a  diary  of  the  affairs  of  the  world.  Such  an  account  proceeds  as 
if  one  stood  at  the  end  of  a  street  and  described  the  succession  of 
houses  in  adjoining  blocks.  An  example  of  this  static  sort  of 
description  is  taken  from  a  current  history  of  Italy  i11  “Robert 
the  Wise  (of  Anjou)  (1309-1343),  the  successor  of  Charles  II 
of  Naples,  and  the  champion  of  the  Guelphs,  could  not  extend 
his  power  over  Sicily  where  Frederick  II  (1296-1337)  the  son  of 
Peter  of  Aragon,  reigned.  Robert’s  grand-daughter,  Joan  I, 
after  a  career  of  crime  and  misfortune,  was  strangled  in  prison 
by  Charles  Durazzo,  the  last  male  descendant  of  the  house  of 
Anjou  in  lower  Italy  (1382)  who  seized  the  government.  Joan 
II,  the  last  heir  of  Durazzo  (1414- 143 5),  first  adopted  Alfonso 
V,  of  Aragon,  and  then  Louis  III,  of  Anjou,  and  his  brother 
Rene.  Alfonso,  who  inherited  the  crown  of  Sicily,  united  both 
kingdoms  (1435),  after  a  war  with  Rene  and  the  Visconti  of 
Milan.” 

It  has  been  urged  that  this  method  is  the  only  scientific  method 
of  dealing  with  historical  data.  Static  historians  point  out  that 
interpretation  and  elaboration  in  history  are  as  open  to  objec¬ 
tions  as  is  interpretation  in  any  of  the  sciences.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  static  method  does  escape  the  great  danger  besetting 
the  second  conception  of  history,  the  conception  that  history  con¬ 
sists  mainly  of  an  exegesis  or  an  expounding  of  discrete  facts 
in  the  light  of  some  ligating  principle  or  principles.  In  this  re¬ 
spect,  history  as  we  look  back  upon  it  seems  to  be  an  unfolding, 
an  efflorescence,  an  explication,  providing  we  can  use  such  terms 
without  implying  teleology.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  this  second 
sort  of  history,  genetic  history,  was  largely  supported  by  the  bio¬ 
logical  sciences.  Within  a  decade  men  began  to  realize  that  the 
whole  earth  and  everything  in  it  had  a  history,  a  genesis,  a 
growth,  an  evolution.  They  realized  that  only  a  part  of  the 
story  had  been  told  by  their  static  description  of  events.  The 
main  problem  had  been  to  state  history  “wie  es  eigentlich  ge- 
wesen.”  The  genetic  point  of  view  made  as  its  quest  history 
“wie  es  eigentlich  geworden.”12  This  second  type  of  history, 

11  Quoted  by  Robinson,  S.  N.,  The  new  history,  1912,  p.  3. 

12  Robinson,  S.  N.,  op.  cit.,  p.  78. 


22 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


then,  involves  a  high  degree  of  ligation  between  facts,  and  the 
quest  of  the  geneticist  is  directed  primarily  toward  the  principles 
of  ligation,  the  bonds  that  give  his  bare  temporal  successions  a 
unity  and  onward-moving  significance. 

There  are,  then,  at  least  two  ways  of  regarding  history.  The 
historian  can  be  “ultra-scientific”;  that  is  to  say,  merely  descrip¬ 
tive  or  static,  and  so  put  down  his  facts  in  orderly  temporal 
succession;  or  he  can  enrich  and  enliven  his  account  by  reading 
into  them  the  culmination  of  tendencies,  the  inception  of  move¬ 
ments,  the  mental-like  stream  of  pregnant  and  forward-tending 
events. 

Let  us  turn  now  for  a  moment  to  psychology.  The  answer 
to  our  query:  How  are  we  to  write  a  history  of  psychology?  de¬ 
pends  quite  as  fully  upon  the  meanings  of  the  word  psychology 
as  upon  those  of  history.  For  our  present  purposes  we  can  dis¬ 
tinguish  two  meanings  of  the  word.  In  the  first  sense  and  at  the 
same  time  the  broadest  sense  psychology  refers,  in  a  general  way, 
to  all  the  events  or  facts  issuing  from  the  existence  in  the  world 
of  minds  or  of  anything  mental.  That  is  to  say,  psychology  is 
a  blanket  term  to  cover  almost  anything  from  the  alleged  ap¬ 
pearance  of  dead  friends  or  of  the  latest  achievement  of  a  su¬ 
perior  dog  to  an  abstruse  discussion  of  the  problem  of  knowing 
or  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  In  the  second  place,  psychology 
may  be  defined  rigidly  so  as  to  include  only  a  scientific  description 
of  mind,  of  mental  activity,  or  of  mental  products.  There  have 
arisen,  of  late,  a  number  of  such  statements  regarding  the  nature 
of  psychology,  statements  that  definitely  exclude  a  large  amount 
of  material  popularly  known  as  mental.  Moreover,  many  of 
these  recent  descriptions  of  psychology  take  the  psychologist 
farther  away  than  ever  from  certain  borderland  problems  which 
have  in  the  popular  mind  formed  the  central  province  of  psy¬ 
chology.  Finally,  scientific  accounts  of  mind  have  eliminated  a 
large  number  of  philosophical  problems  concerning  the  nature 
of  mind,  of  knowing,  of  the  reliability  of  sense-perception,  the 
origin  and  significance  of  the  self,  and  so  on. 

With  these  distinctions  before  us,  then,  can  we  state  the  rele- 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


23 


vant  features  of  a  history  of  psychology?  Our  answer  must  fall 
under  four  headings.  If  history  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  diary 
and  psychology  as  the  accumulation  of  common  sense  and  re¬ 
flective  thinking,  we  shall  derive  an  account  considerably  at 
variance  with  the  account  issuing  from  a  chronological  descrip¬ 
tion  of  psychology  as  a  science.  On  the  other  hand,  if  history  is 
an  interpretation  of  the  diary,  a  genetic,  dynamic  account  of  a 
growing  thing,  our  psychological  history  will  depend  upon  our 
choice  of  psychology  as  a  general  popular  discipline  or  as  a 
specific  scientific  discipline. 

Since  much  depends  upon  our  choice  of  a  method  of  writing 
our  history,  we  shall  briefly  illustrate  the  kinds  of  history  fall¬ 
ing  under  each  of  these  conditions.  Suppose,  for  the  moment, 
that  history  is  a  diary  and  that  psychology  is  a  general  name  for 
the  study  or  observation  of  anything  mental.  Our  historical 
chronicle  would  begin,  then,  with  the  first  written  records  we 
have  of  man’s  dealings  with  mind,  either  by  way  of  examina¬ 
tion  or  of  superstition  or  by  way  of  reflection  on  the  problem  of 
knowledge.  Such  a  history  would  take  us  back  to  the  life  and 
supposed  work  of  Thales  and  then  hasten  us  through  the  births 
and  deaths  and  the  date  of  the  principal  works  of  Pythagoras, 
Heraclitus,  the  Eleatics,  Democritus,  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  fin¬ 
ally,  after  many  chapters,  would  give  us  a  breathing  spell  among 
the  chuch  fathers.  In  these  early  chapters  we  should  have  become 
acquainted  with  the  numerical  relations  of  the  typical  Pythago¬ 
rean,  the  cosmic  and  mental  elements  of  Heraclitus  or  of  Em¬ 
pedocles,  the  sieve-like  theory  of  sense-perception  from 
Democritus,  the  tripartite  world  of  Plato  or  the  realization  of 
the  potential  in  Aristotle.  The  chief  emphasis  in  such  an  ac¬ 
count,  as  is  evidenced  by  most  of  the  text-books  on  the  history 
of  psychology,  is  the  contribution  of  each  individual  to  a  grow¬ 
ing  body  of  knowledge  regarding  mind  and  the  world  in  which 
it  lives.  At  least,  the  emphasis  is  certainly  not  on  the  spirit 
of  the  time  or  the  factors  in  the  lives  of  the  men  that  made  their 
contributions  possible. 

In  writing  the  chapters  on  the  psychological  contributions  of 


24 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


the  church  fathers,  some  genetic  reference  must  be  made,  at  the 
least,  to  Plato  and  Aristotle.  All  that  the  patristic  leaders  did 
was  in  a  large  measure  colored  by  the  writings  of  Plato  and 
Aristotle.  But  even  so,  the  other  factors  that  existed  in  the 
political  and  social  conditions  of  the  times  find  no  part  in  a 
description  of  the  conditions  that  made  patristic  psychology  what 
it  was.  Our  daily  chronicle  would  take  us  through  Marcus 
Aurelius,  Tertullian,  Origen,  Plotinus,  St.  Augustine,  Thomas 
Aquinas  and  Duns  Scotus.  The  history  of  psychology,  regarded 
from  the  point  of  view  here  considered  would  still  mention 
births  and  deaths  and  the  principal  contributions  of  each  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  functions  of  the  soul  and  of  the  intellect  and 
the  respective  importance  of  divinity  and  of  the  will  in  the  con¬ 
trol  of  conduct.  Two  hundred  fifty  years  later  we  should  sud¬ 
denly  find  ourselves  at  the  inception  of  a  large  empirical  move¬ 
ment  of  which  Bacon  was  the  first  representative  and  Hobbes  and 
Locke  worthy  followers.  These  men  formulated  doctrines  of  the 
nature  of  mind  and  of  the  problem  of  knowledge  that  dominated 
English  thought  for  nearly  three  centuries,  but  if  the  psycholo¬ 
gist  knows  the  origin  and  significance  of  this  movement,  it  is  by 
way  of  general  history  and  general  literature  and  not  by  way 
of  historical  research  in  psychology.  In  the  meantime,  under  an 
impetus  from  Descartes  in  France  and  Locke  in  England,  Male- 
branche  crystallizes  French  thought  for  a  short  time  and  then 
the  record  becomes  discontinuous,  with  a  number  of  contending 
movements  of  different  value.  The  whole  of  Germany  falls 
under  the  spell  of  Kant  and  while  the  chapters  of  the  text  run  on 
with  the  details  of  the  diary,  we  suddenly  find  ourselves  in  the 
midst  of  a  psychological  laboratory  with  a  conception  of  mind 
that  is  scientifically  possible  and  with  a  method  that  begins  to 
produce  results  with  amazing  rapidity,  but  with  small  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  why  we  have  arrived  and  where  we  may  expect  to  go. 
The  whole  account  from  this  point  of  view  is  just  a  chronological 
sequence,  the  noting  of  the  appearance  of  new  movements  and 
of  the  men  responsible  for  them. 

This  general  situation  is  similar  if  we  take  history  as  a  diary 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


25 


and  psychology  as  a  science,  save  that  our  history  of  psychology 
begins,  not  with  Thales  or  early  Arabian  thought,  but  with  some 
such  time  as  the  publication  of  the  Beitrdge  zur  Theorie  der  Sin- 
neswahrnehmung  in  1862.  The  spirit  of  the  account,  however, 
is  not  different  from  that  just  given.  The  Grundzuge  is  followed 
by  the  Tonpsychologie,  the  Zeitschrift  fiir  Volkerpsychologie  und 
Sprachwissenschaft  by  the  Volkerpsychologie ,  while  Hermann’s 
Handbuch  provides  an  appropriate  sense  physiology.  The  locus 
of  the  history  is  largely  in  Germany  until  the  late  years  of  the 
19th  century,  when  several  of  Wundt’s  pupils  returned  to  this 
country,  established  their  own  laboratories  and  continued  the 
scientific  productivity  of  the  German  universities. 

Now  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  conception  of  history  as 
interpretation  and  to  psychology  regarded  first  as  accumulated 
common  sense  and  secondly  as  science.  In  this  second  type  of 
history  a  new  spirit  guides  the  account.  We  find  that  men  have 
not  only  lived  and  contributed  but  that  they  have  reflected;  they 
have  absorbed  from  their  forefathers  and  from  their  contem¬ 
poraries,  and  their  work  is  alive  with  meaning  and  reference. 
Thales  becomes  the  spokesman  of  his  day  and  reflects  the  type 
of  thought  about  him.  The  record  from  him  to  Aristotle  is  not 
discrete  but  continuous,  and  Aristotle  is  what  he  is  because  of 
the  contributions  of  those  who  have  lived  before  him.  The 
task  of  the  interpretative  psychologist  is  to  discover  what  there 
was  in  the  lives  of  men  and  in  the  political  and  social  organiza¬ 
tion  of  the  time  that  made  the  contribution  of  Aristotle  pos¬ 
sible.  The  patristic  psychologists  are  not  isolated  commentators 
on  the  functions  of  reason  but  they  are  rather  the  reflectors  of 
profound  religious,  social  and  political  tendencies  in  the  lives 
of  the  people.  In  this  history  of  psychology  we  do  not  find  our¬ 
selves  suddenly  in  the  midst  of  an  empirical  movement  but  we 
find  instead  a  number  of  tendencies  leading  for  years  toward  the 
formulation  of  just  the  problems  with  which  Bacon  struggled. 
In  the  nineteenth  century  psychology  does  not  come  suddenly 
upon  a  scientific  conception  of  mind  and  of  psychological  method. 
These  are  things  that  have  come  out  of  the  lives  and  work  of  men 


26 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


who  were  sometimes  remote  in  place  and  in  thought  from  the 
events  to  which  they  unwittingly  contributed. 

As  is  the  case  in  the  first  type  of  history,  the  account  is  con¬ 
siderably  shortened  if  psychology  is  considered  a  science.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  we  have  now  come  upon  what  seems  to  be  a 
real  basis  for  writing  a  history  of  psychology.  From  this  point 
of  view,  we  no  longer  need  to  take  up  half  or  three-fourths  of 
our  text  with  an  account,  either  chronological  or  interpretative, 
of  the  problems  that  are  essentially  philosophical  and  not  psycho¬ 
logical.  They  become  of  significance  and  of  interest  only  in  so 
far  as  they  furnish  the  basis  for  the  interpretative  account  that 
must,  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  begin  at  some  arbitrary  date, 
as  for  example,  the  founding  of  the  Leipzig  laboratory.  In  this 
account  of  the  history  of  psychology,  Meumann  and  Kiilpe  and 
Helmholtz  and  Stump f  and  Ach  and  Messer  and  others  do  not 
stand  apart  from  one  another  but  they  are  creatures  with  unique 
historical  backgrounds.  The  work  that  they  did  falls  into  order 
and  assumes  significance  only  in  so  far  as  it  represents  or  re¬ 
flects  tendencies  which  have  their  roots  in  the  past,  some  tem¬ 
porally  near  and  some  temporally  far  away. 

In  answer  to  our  question,  then,  we  can  say  that  a  significant 
history  of  psychology  can  be  written  with  the  most  of  it  falling 
within  the  last  fifty  years  and  but  little  of  it  in  the  preceding 
twenty  centuries.  Ebbinghaus’s  remark  that  psychology  has  had  a 
long  past  and  a  short  history  emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  long 
past  is  only  a  mold  in  which  were  cast  the  essential  features  of 
the  science.  The  past,  that  is,  the  past  prior  to  some  such 
arbitrary  date  as  we  have  named,  becomes  significant  only  in  so 
far  as  we  need  it  to  interpret  the  facts  and  tendencies  with  which 
we  are  now  dealing. 

If  this  conception  of  the  history  of  psychology  is  acceptable, 
certain  other  aspects  of  the  problem  become  immediately  in¬ 
sistent.  The  histories  we  have  at  the  present  time  are  but  pro- 
logomena  to  a  real  history.  They  are  concerned,  for  the  most 
part,  with  the  pre-psychological  facts.  It  is  true  that  they  can 
be  supplemented  by  the  introductory  chapters  of  a  good  many 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


27 


doctoral  theses,  but  even  so  we  come  upon  the  fact  that  the  science 
stands  in  need  of  much  serious  historical  research,  the  results 
of  which  will  form  the  body  of  theses  instead  of  brief  introduc¬ 
tions.  We  have  buried  ourselves  so  deeply  in  our  laboratories  and 
dissipated  our  energies  so  prematurely  in  the  fields  of  psycho¬ 
technics  that  we  are,  to  judge  from  the  tenor  of  a  large  part 
of  current  periodical  literature,  losing  contact  with  the  real  prob¬ 
lem  of  psychology.  It  is  true  that  psychology  has  become  a  com¬ 
plicated  discipline.  We  have  said  before  that  it  includes  a  large 
number  of  tendencies.  The  histories  that  have  usually  led  up 
to  sensationalism  have  missed  altogether  the  tendencies  issuing 
in  functionalism  and  behaviorism  to  say  nothing  of  borderland 
groups  of  facts  that,  out  of  scientific  fairness,  must  be  taken  into 
account.  The  historian  of  the  science  must,  then,  as  soon  as  time 
reduces  and  properly  valuates  our  facts,  put  them  together  in 
an  organic  whole  and  see  what  they  mean  as  history.  The 
science  needs  the  impetus  to  healthy  growth  that  comes  from  a 
knowledge  of  the  contributing  factors  to  its  existence.  One  of 
the  chief  ways  of  properly  estimating  the  overnight  development 
of  mushroom  “psychologies”  is  to  examine  critically  the  kind 
of  soil  out  of  which  they  have  appeared.  All  the  world  loves  a 
good  problem  and  a  sound  method,  but  neither  of  these  comes 
from  sterile  ground.  They  are  generally  the  results  of  long  incu¬ 
bation  or  simmering,  and  their  real  value  to  the  development  of 
the  discipine  as  a  whole  falls  under  the  scrutiny  of  the  historian 
who  can  place  them  in  proper  perspective. 

The  historian  of  the  science  of  psychology  stands  in  a  pe¬ 
culiar  relation  to  his  fellow  historians.  He  is  dealing  with  ma¬ 
terial  that  is  more  like  mind  in  its  fluent  character  than  any  other 
process.  The  nature  of  mind  is  such  that  it  must  be  viewed  in 
the  light  of  its  own  organization  and  function.  The  psychologist, 
by  virtue  of  his  knowledge  of  the  subject-matter  with  which 
he  deals,  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  exhibit  the  conditions  under 
which  points  of  view  develop  and  the  ways  in  which  our  present 
achievements  are  related  to  the  past.  Mind  in  its  own  develop¬ 
ment  is  cumulative  in  a  peculiar  sense,  and  as  the  historian  of  mind 
views  the  facts  of  his  science  he  finds  that  they  too  are,  as 


28 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


mental  monuments  or  products  of  mind,  also  cumulative.  By 
virtue  of  his  training  and  his  knowledge,  the  psychologist  is 
committed  to  the  type  of  historical  research  we  are  urging.  He 
has  stripped  his  science  of  its  meaning  if  he  contents  himself 
with  a  chronology.  He  is  bound  to  regard  the  past  as  a  promise 
of  the  future  and  the  present  as  the  natural  outgrowth  of  the 
past. 

It  appears,  then,  from  our  discussion  thus  far  that  a  history 
of  psychology  should  consist  of  an  interpretative  account  of 
psychology  taken  as  a  science.  This  makes  the  historical  account 
short  in  the  time  covered  but  long  in  the  developments  included. 
We  have  found  also  that  the  proper  valuation  of  the  field  as  it  is 
rests  first  of  all  upon  sound  historical  research,  and  that  the 
psychologist  was  peculiarly  fitted  to  be  a  historian. 

We  have  now  to  ask  what  should  be  the  central  factors  in  a 
history  of  psychology?  About  what  central  theme  should  the 
account  be  written?  Too  often  histories  are  colored  by  the  de¬ 
sire  to  show  that  events  are  leading  naturally  to  some  favored 
system  of  interpretation  of  fact  or  are  useful  for  purposes  of  propa¬ 
ganda.  But,  viewing  the  science  in  the  large,  is  there  a  central 
theme  about  which  the  history  can  be  written,  a  theme  which  will 
not  at  the  same  time  be  an  excuse  for  propaganda.  There  are  a 
number  of  possibilities  appearing  at  once.  Psychology  has  de¬ 
pended  largely  upon  the  formulation  of  its  methods.  But  it  has 
also  developed  a  scientific  statement  of  its  problem  and  it  has  dis¬ 
covered  certain  vital  relations  with  other  scientific  disciplines.  Let 
us  propose,  however,  in  order  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  focus,  that 
the  history  of  psychology  should  have  as  its  central  theme  the 
tracing  of  the  stages  in  the  development  of  a  scientific  conception 
of  mind.  Method  and  problem  have  waited  upon  a  conception  of 
what  the  subject-matter  of  psychology  really  is.  If  the  history  of 
psychology  means  anything,  it  means  that  all  that  men  have  done 
or  are  now  doing  in  the  field  rests  essentially  on  this  one  problem, 
viz.,  what  is  mind?  This  kind  of  difficulty  did  not  materially 
hinder  the  development  of  the  physical  and  the  biological  sciences ; 
although  they  had  to  outgrow  the  belief  that  life  was  a  manifes¬ 
tation  of  some  immaterial  force  or  power  and  that  events  in  the 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


29 


physical  world  were  controlled,  not  by  natural  laws,  but  by 
resident  spirits  of  one  kind  and  another.  The  development  of  a 
scientific  conception  of  mind,  however,  has  been  a  serious  prob¬ 
lem.  Indeed,  it  appears  to  be  one  of  the  most  serious  problems 
with  which  the  history  of  psychology  has  to  deal.  If  mind  is 
a  form  of  energy,  then  our  method  and  the  statement  of  our 
problem  are  to  a  certain  extent  already  established.  If  mind 
is  the  manifestation  of  the  soul  in  the  body,  other  methods  and 
other  problems  are  presupposed. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  two  generations  of  psychologists 
have  been  working  on  an  empirical  level  with  just  such  a  concept. 
As  a  result  of  centuries  of  reflection,  and  by  virtue  of  inheritances 
from  the  related  sciences,  psychology  turns  out  to  be  neither  the 
study  of  the  activities  of  a  soul  nor  the  study  of  a  subtle  kind 
of  energy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  science  consists  of  an  ac¬ 
cumulating  series  of  observations  directed  toward  mental  ex¬ 
periences.  The  laboratory  has  gone  to  work  on  the  assumption 
that  if  it  takes  a  small  bit  of  human  experience  and  repeats  it 
over  and  over  again  under  conditions  that  are  carefully  con¬ 
trolled  and  undertakes  to  reduce  the  experience  to  its  smallest 
constituents,  it  has  made  a  scientific  description  of  the  event. 
When  all  such  experiences  are  thus  scrutinized  from  the  point 
of  view  of  composition,  of  organization,  and  of  function,  and 
the  facts  are  then  moulded  into  a  system,  the  task  of  the  psychol¬ 
ogist  is  done.  His  labors  have  been  fruitful  beyond  his  early 
anticipation. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  that  a  history  of  the  science  of  psychology 
must  be  written  on  the  empirical  level  which  the  discipline  has 
attained.  A  history  of  the  functions  of  the  soul  or  of  the  prob¬ 
lem  of  knowledge  or  of  the  nature  of  the  ego  is  no  longer  ade¬ 
quate  to  the  mature  dignity  of  the  science.  A  substantial  and 
adequate  history  will,  according  to  our  analysis,  consist,  in  part, 
of  a  genetic  account  of  the  development  of  the  scientific  concept 
of  mind,  and,  in  part,  of  a  survey  of  the  products  of  the  labora¬ 
tory  and  the  growth  of  empirically  organized  systems  of  psy¬ 
chology. 


A  PRELIMINARY  STUDY  OF  THE  EMOTIONS1 

By  C.  A.  Ruckmick 

For  several  years  we  have  made  an  attempt  to  investigate  the 
emotions  and,  to  some  extent,  the  affective  processes  in  general  in 
accordance  with  the  experimental  procedure  followed  in  con¬ 
nection  with  other  processes.  It  has  long  been  recognized  that 
an  empirical  study  of  the  affective  dispositions  was  bound  to 
meet  with  almost  insuperable  obstacles.  For  one  thing,  it  was 
difficult  to  plan  a  series  of  experiments  that  would  keep  the  ob¬ 
servers  naive.  If  an  observer  has  been  once  or  twice  tricked  into 
an  emotion,  he  will  not  only  guard  against  a  future  repetition 
but  he  may  actively  set  himself  against  the  arousal  or, — what 
amounts  to  the  same  thing, — he  will  not  meet  the  attempt  seri¬ 
ously.  In  another  respect  difficulties  appear  on  the  side  of  the 
process  itself.  If  the  charges  of  Herbart  and  of  some  of  his 
predecessors  concerning  the  distortion  of  the  process  under  in¬ 
vestigation  have  any  weight,  it  is  certain  that  they  will  have 
special  significance  in  connection  with  the  emotional  experiences 
of  the  human  mind. 

It  has  been  a  common  practice  to  attack  the  emotional  life 
either  from  the  side  of  its  physiological  expression  or  through  its 
effects  on  other  mental  processes.  A  considerable  amount  of 
material  is  to  be  found  in  the  literature  concerning  the  physio¬ 
logical  effects  in  the  psychophysical  organism,  and  latterly  em¬ 
phasis  has  been  placed  upon  the  secretions  of  the  ductless  glands. 
So  far  as  we  are  aware,  there  has  been  very  little  work  done 

1  The  author  is  grateful  first  of  all  to  Miss  Merle  Turner  who  posed  for 
the  photographs  and  eagerly  took  part  in  the  long  process  of  making,  se¬ 
lecting,  and  often  discarding  the  expressions  obtained.  Various  divisions 
of  the  composite  study  were  assigned  to  students  who  elected  a  major  course 
in  the  Department  of  Psychology.  Among  them  are  Miss  Harriet  Anderson, 
Miss  Marion  Louise  Smith,  Miss  Zeniar  Kizer,  and  Miss  Esther  E.  Kinsey. 
To  this  list  ought  to  be  added  a  long  roll  of  observers.  To  all  of  these  the 
author  wishes  hereby  to  give  credit  for  work  faithfully  undertaken  and 
done. 


Plate  I 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


3i 


on  the  facial  expression  of  emotion.  The  studies  of  Langfeld  at 
the  Harvard  laboratories  and  some  previous  investigations  of 
Feleky  have  brought  once  more  to  our  attention  what  can  be  done 
with  the  human  face. 

I 

The  collections2  of  facial  expressions  so  far  published  and 
available  for  general  use  are  made  up  of  line  drawings  of  a 
heavily  bearded  face  that  was  obviously  “touched  up”  by  some 
artist.  Outside  of  the  Columbia  studies  later  to  be  mentioned, 
little  or  nothing  had  been  done  with  the  female  face.  We  were 
curious,  for  example,  to  see  what  range  of  expression  we  could 
obtain  without  such  accentuating  accessories  as  a  moustache  and 
beard.  We  therefore  arranged  for  a  series  of  sittings  with  one 
of  the  talented  women  students  in  the  University  who  had  had 
considerable  training  in  dramatic  performances.  The  plan  con¬ 
sisted  in  drawing  up  a  list  of  expressions  that  we  desired  to 
photograph  and  in  selecting  for  each  day  three  or  four  of  these 
for  practice.  During  her  spare  time  in  the  morning,  the  student 
would  practice  the  expression  before  a  mirror,  frequently  with 
the  assistance  of  some  classical  quotation  which  she  had  recalled 
in  connection  with  this  particular  emotion.  She  would  then 
come  at  an  appointed  hour  in  the  afternoon  to  one  of  the  dark 
rooms  in  the  laboratory  which  was  illuminated  by  a  high  candle- 
power  incandescent  light.  The  camera  was  placed  within  three  or 
four  feet  of  the  face  and  to  one  side,  as  close  as  possible  to  the 
camera,  a  mirror  was  hung  in  which  she  could  observe  her  ex¬ 
pression  until  the  desired  exposure  was  made.  The  experi¬ 
menter,  too,  frequently  criticized  the  expression,  and  sometimes, 
when  the  attempt  proved  to  be  unsuccessful,  deferred  that 
particular  expression  for  a  more  opportune  time.  There  was,  of 
course,  a  suitable  neutral  background  and  the  student  was  uni¬ 
formly  draped  in  black  velvet  so  that  all  but  the  face  fell  into  the 
background. 

At  this  point  it  must  be  remarked  that  the  expression  of  the 

2  Rudolph,  H.,  Der  Ausdruck  der  G e milt sb ewe g ungen  des  Menschen,  (2 
vols.),  Dresden,  1903. 


32 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


emotion  was  necessarily  confined  to  the  face.  The  voice,  for 
instance,  played  absolutely  no  part  in  the  depiction  of  the  emo¬ 
tion.  In  one  or  two  instances  only  were  the  hands  or  other  por¬ 
tions  of  the  body  permitted  to  take  part  and  then  merely  to  assist 
the  portrayer  in  her  efforts  to  express  her  emotion.  Since  this 
part  of  the  body  was  not  photographed,  it  could  not  enter  into  the 
interpretation  of  the  expression. 

The  exposure  was  made  for  some  five  seconds  and  then  both 
the  student  and  the  photographer  repaired  to  the  dark  room  to 
see  whether  the  negative  was  satisfactory.  If  unsuccessful,  that 
particular  expression  was  repeated  until  it  had  been  properly 
reproduced.  Thirty-four  negatives  were  retained  when  the  pro¬ 
cess  was  completed.  Examples  of  these  expressions  are  shown 
in  Plates  I  and  II. 

II 

Our  first  attempts  lay  in  the  direction  of  determining  how 
successfully  the  emotions  were  portrayed  as  judged  from  the  in¬ 
terpretations  independently  made  by  over  a  score  of  observers. 
Some  of  these  observers  were  left  to  their  own  choice  of  names, 
after  being  instructed  to  be  as  concise  as  possible.  Other  ob¬ 
servers  were  given  a  condensed  list  of  names  from  which  to 
choose  the  corresponding  photographic  expression  of  the  emo¬ 
tion,  much  in  the  same  fashion  as  was  done  in  the  study  of  emo¬ 
tion  at  the  Columbia  laboratories.3  The  series  of  thirty-four 
photographs  were  submitted  to  each  of  the  four  observers  with 
the  following  instructions: 

“You  will  be  shown  the  photograph  of  a  face.  Please  note 
first  what  meaning  you  read  into  the  face,  and  second,  any 
change  in  your  own  affective  reaction  as  a  result  of  viewing  the 
picture.” 

Each  observer  was  asked  at  the  beginning  of  the  series  to  de¬ 
scribe  his  emotional  state.  After  viewing  the  picture,  he  was 
further  instructed  to  write  down  (i)  the  name  of  a  brief  de¬ 
scription  of  the  emotion  portrayed  in  the  photograph  and  (2)  a 
descriptive  commentary  upon  his  own  inspection  and  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  picture. 

3  Feleky,  A.  M.,  Expression  of  emotions,  Psychol.  Rev.,  1914,  xxi,  33-41. 


Plate  II 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


33 


The  attached  list  shows  the  variety  of  expressions  used  to  de¬ 
signate  the  interpretation  of  the  photograph.  Some  allowance 
must  be  made  for  inadequacy  of  verbal  expression,  as  when  an 
observer  gropes  about  to  find  a  word  that  will  carry  his  meaning. 
Some  emotional  expressions,  especially  when  the  emotion  be¬ 
comes  intellectualized,  give  a  much  less  uniform  response  on  the 
part  of  the  observer  than  others,  as  will  be  seen  by  comparing, 
for  example  (see  accompanying  list),  No.  14  or  No.  20  with  No. 
21  or  No.  30.  As  a  rule,  the  “primary”  emotions,  as  love  and 
hate,  joy  and  sorrow,  are  much  more  uniformly  interpreted  than 
the  “secondary”  ones,  like  repulsiveness,  surprise,  distrust  and 
defiance. 

In  all  these  cases,  the  observers  were  asked  to  set  down  their 
interpretations  without  suggestions  from  the  experimenter.  The 
problem  that  suggested  itself  was  the  question  regarding  the  role 
of  the  several  facial  features  in  suggesting  the  interpretation. 
Our  photographs  were  so  taken,  as  we  have  before  noted,  that 
the  expression  was  confined  to  the  face.  The  point  now  raised 
was :  do  the  eyes  furnish  a  better  cue  than  the  mouth,  or  the 
lines  about  the  nose?  In  a  preliminary  study  with  some  fifteen 
copies  from  the  Rudolph  collection,  the  face  was  divided  up  into 
three  sections  showing  only  the  eyes  in  one  case,  the  nose  and 
lines  about  the  nose  in  another,  and  the  mouth  in  the  third.  In 
still  another  series  the  face  was  divided  into  upper  and  lower 
half.  In  this  preliminary  experiment  it  was  found  that  next 
to  the  whole  face  the  lower  half  of  the  face  gave  the  best  cues 
for  interpretation;  then  in  order  came  the  eyes,  the  lower  half,  the 
mouth,  and  finally  the  nose  and  the  lines  about  the  nose.  This 
series  was  repeated  with  our  collection  of  thirty-five  portraits 
with  the  same  results.  In  order  to  avoid  the  observer's  memory 
of  the  picture  giving  him  the  necessary  suggestions,  the  series 
was  so  arranged  that  in  each  series  of  ten  presentations  each 
day  one-half  of  the  number  were  always  new  for  that  week. 
The  results  indicated,  with  only  a  few  exceptions,  that  memory 
played  comparatively  little  part  in  the  interpretation  of  the  par¬ 
tially  covered  face. 


34 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


III 

In  still  another  experiment  we  attempted  to  show,  on  the  basis 
of  introspective  evidence,  what  were  the  mental  processes  which 
conveyed  the  meaning  of  the  portrait  and  to  what  extent  there 
were  individual  differences  in  this  procedure.  We  had  casually 
noticed  before,  in  previous  studies,  that  some  observers  would 
visualize  the  entire  person  who  portrait  was  shown  and  idea- 
tionally  integrate  the  position  of  the  hands,  posture  of  the  body, 
and  occasionally  relevant  objects  about  the  room;  others  could 
hear  the  words  spoken ;  still  others  would  call  up  memory  pictures 
of  their  own  similar  experiences;  and  some  would  take  the  pic¬ 
ture  quite  passively  as  a  picture  without  going  interpretatively 
behind  it.  There  seemed  to  be  in  the  last  case  comparatively 
little  elaboration.  The  author  has  found  the  same  difference  in 
individuals  attending  cinematographic  performances. 

To  illustrate  the  dramatization  of  these  portraits  and  also  the 
individual  differences  in  the  manner  of  their  interpretation,  a 
few  statements  from  the  observers  will  be  quoted: 

“She  has  been  crying,  but  when  another  person  enters  the 
room  she  becomes  defiant.  She  refuses  to  be  dictated  to.  Hither¬ 
to  she  has  been  quiet  but  on  the  entrance  of  the  second  person 
she  calls  out  angrily.” 

“The  rather  stary  eyes  give  the  idea  of  interest  but  of  a  per¬ 
son  who  is  ill  and  has  not  physical  strength  or  else  is  tired.  I 
remember  feeling  the  same  way  the  subject  looked  when  I  have 
been  tired.” 

“Someone  for  whom  the  girl  feels  responsible  has  gotten  into 
difficulties  and  the  subject  of  the  picture  is  more  or  less  terrified 
and  searching  anxiously  for  a  solution  of  the  problem.” 

“I  noticed  that  my  own  eyes  seemed  to  hurt  when  I  looked  at 
the  picture  and  I  felt  a  sagging  of  the  muscles  above  the  mouth.” 

“I  feel  a  contraction  of  the  muscles  in  the  throat  and  tongue. 
My  teeth  are  set  and  there  is  a  feeling  of  strain.” 

“Terribly  unpleasant  visual  perception  of  a  drunken  man  and 
his  children  in  the  room.” 

IV 

It  appeared  that  the  mood  of  the  observer  changing  from  day 
to  day  had  some  effect  on  the  interpretation  of  the  face.  We 


INTERPRETATIONS  BY  OBSERVERS 


Expression  Intended 

(Obs.)  A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

G 

I 

Bodily  pain 

Pain 

Pain 

Bodily  distress 

Suffering 

Anguish 

Pain 

Pain 

2 

Resentment 

Fear 

Sadness 

Surprise,  resentment 

Retrospection 

Given  up  hope 

Thought 

Endurance 

3 

Scorn 

Scorn 

Contempt 

Contempt,  disdain 

Disgust 

Sneering 

Scorn 

Doubt 

4 

Sulkiness 

Disappointment 

Dejection 

Sullen,  rebellion 

Sulkiness 

Moroseness 

Sulky 

Disappointment 

5 

Thoughtfulness 

Contemplation 

Thought 

Angry  resistance 

Memories 

Reproving 

Attention 

Interest 

6 

Grief 

Pleading 

As  one  persecuted 

Sorrow,  hope  of  relief 

Expectancy 

Poverty-stricken 

Pleading 

Sight  of  pain 

7 

Amusement 

Happiness 

Amused 

Humor 

Welcome 

Happiness 

Contentment 

Amusement 

8 

Laughter 

Joy 

? 

Gay  laughter 

Raillery 

Joyousness 

Merry 

Enjoyment 

9 

Interested  amusement 

Amused  interest 

? 

Interested  inquiry 

Interest 

Admiration 

Happy 

Entertainment 

10 

Vindictive  rage 

Repulsion,  anger 

Anger 

Gross  fun 

Fright 

Insane,  drugged 

Hate 

Terror 

ii 

Surprise 

Pleasant  surprise 

Surprise 

Surprise,  pleasant 

Wonder 

Surprise 

Surprise 

Enlightenment 

12 

Extreme  anger 

Disappointment 

Discouraged 

Surprise,  apprehension 

Apprehension 

Intense  thought 

Dismay 

Fright 

13 

Tearful  sorrow 

Sorrow 

Disillusion 

Stupefied  grief 

Dejection 

Grief 

Sorrow 

Grief 

14 

Terror  (inch  fear) 

Astonishment 

Fear 

Horror 

Startled 

Sudden  fear 

Astonishment 

Horror 

IS 

Horror  (inch  suspense) 

Pained  surprise 

Fear 

Apprehension,  painful  sight 

Agitation 

Torture 

Shock 

Suspense 

16 

Hopelessness 

Wistful 

p 

Rueful  meditation 

Sadness 

Resigned-to-fate 

Wistful 

Pity 

17 

Worship 

Inspired 

? 

Mild,  passive  elation 

Hope 

Spiritual 

Inspiration 

Awe 

18 

Apprehending  an  idea 

Amused  questioning 

p 

Suspended  anguish 

Interest 

Oh! 

Questioning 

Inspiration 

19 

Interested  observation 

Love 

? 

Pleasing  observation 

Attention 

Interest 

Interest 

Convinced 

20 

Anger 

Angered  fright 

Hate 

Anger 

Vindictiveness 

Anger 

Anger 

Disagreement 

21 

Distrustful  hate 

Distrust 

Mean 

Critical  disapproval 

Sulkiness 

Peevishness 

Distrust 

Dissatisfaction 

22 

Begging  entreaty 

Pleading 

p 

Sentimental  admiration 

Mild  resignation 

Assumed  happiness 

Pleading 

Wistful 

23 

Distrust 

Suspicion 

Distrust 

Critical  reserve 

Doubt 

Distrust 

Doubtful 

Suspicion 

24 

Dumb  surprise 

Wonder 

Incredulous 

Wonder  and  fascination 

Surprise 

Disputing  air 

Wonder 

Revelation 

25 

Haughtiness 

Haughtiness 

Firm 

Rebuke 

Flaughtiness 

Haughtiness 

Haughty 

Defiance 

26 

Defiance 

Angry  defiance 

Defiant 

Repressed  inquiry 

Reproach 

Stubborness 

Defiant 

Challenge 

27 

Curiosity 

Interest 

? 

Rapturous  contemplation 

Faith 

Look  of  inquiry 

Attention 

Convincement 

28 

Sympathy 

Sympathy 

p 

Mild,  wistful  rebuke 

Indifference 

Pleading 

Sympathy 

Wonderment 

29 

Screaming  pain 

Anguish 

? 

Agony 

Hysteria 

Terrible  suffering 

Anguish 

Past  endurance 

30 

Contemptuous  smile 

Cynical  humor 

? 

Mischievous 

Amusement  and  contempt 

Worldliness 

Sarcastic 

Mild,  forced  interest 

31 

Suffering,  not  bodily,  pain 

Ill,  faint 

Surprise 

Dull,  pain 

Pain 

Tired,  pain 

Intense  pain 

Agony 

32 

Tearful  laughter 

Sympathetic  love 

? 

Mild  gaiety 

Reconciliation 

Content 

Love 

Relief 

33 

Violent  laughter 

Mirth 

? 

Explosive  enjoyment 

Amusement 

Joking 

Mirth 

Happiness 

34 

35 

Shocked  surprise 

Skeptical  smile 

Surprise 

Surprise 

Consternation 

Horrified 

Astonishment 

Awe 

Awe 

H 

Bodily  anguish 
Hopeless  suffering 
Disgusted  scorn 
Reproving 
Thoughtfulness 
Dejected  anxiety 
Cheerful,  good  humor 
Heartfelt  joy 
Snippy  pleasantry 
Maniacal  fear 
Surprise  and  joy 
Dread 
Sorrow 
Fright 
Bodily  pain 
Longing 

Peaceful  contemplation 
Quizzical  contemplation 
Interested  observation 
Excited 

Earnest  critical  superiority 
Pathetic,  appealing 
Keen,  questioning 
Surprised  fear 
Superiority 

Commandeerng  snobbishness 
Interested,  non-hearted 
Hurt  surprise 
Great  bodily  anguish 
Foolish,  simple-minded  gaiety 
Hopeless  pain 

“After  sorrow  comes  joy” 
Vivacious  youthfulness 
? 


I 

J 

Despair 

Pain 

Haughtiness 

Despair 

Contempt 

Disgust 

Poverty 

Forlornness 

Thinking 

Defiant  fear 

Questioning 

Plea  for  mercy 

Happy 

Care-free 

Amused 

Joyousness 

Expectant 

Amused  interest 

Contemptible 

Evil 

Surprise 

Surprise 

Disappointed 

Discouraged  fear 

Sorrowful 

Grief 

Startled 

Fright 

Hurt 

Horror 

Dreaming 

Pity 

Adoration 

Adoration 

Whimsical 

Cynical  interest 

Pleasant 

Superiority 

Angry 

Hate 

Scorn 

Rebellion 

Slight  pleading 

Don’t  care 

Revengeful 

Sneaking  deceit 

Astonishment 

Astonishment 

Haughty 

Pride 

Indignant 

Defiance 

Interested 

Love 

Coaxing 

Pleading 

Pain 

Fear  and  pain 

Leering 

Sneering 

Wounded 

Pain 

Yearning 

Frivolous 

Laughing 

Joy 

?  '  ? 


. 


■ 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


35 


undertook  therefore  another  series  of  investigations  using  four 
observers  of  markedly  different  temperaments,  depending  in 
some  instances  on  daily  changes  in  their  moods  and  in  other 
instances  contriving  means,  either  by  showing  unusual  pictures 
or  by  making  various  statements  to  them,  to  change  from  time 
to  time  their  affective  disposition  while  looking  at  the  pictures. 
For  instance,  photographs  of  starving  Viennese  children  were 
available  at  the  time.  These  were  shown  quite  suddenly  to  ob¬ 
servers,  and  the  effect  on  their  subsequent  judgment  of  the  facial 
expressions  was  noted  as  compared  with  normal  series.  Intro¬ 
spections  revealed  whether  or  not  the  desired  effect  was  actually 
experienced.  On  another  occasion,  the  observer  would  be  scolded 
in  the  presence  of  others,  and  sometimes  by  the  instructor,  for 
being  habitually  late  to  his  appointments  or  for  failing  to  hand 
in  required  work. 

Series  were  obtained  also  in  order  to  ascertain  variations  in 
the  interpretations,  made  from  day  to  day,  that  were  due  to  other 
than  emotional  disturbances.  Our  results  show,  in  agreement 
with  Langfeld,4  that  individuals  vary  not  only  with  regard  to 
suggestions  from  without  but  also  in  accordance  with  emotional 
experiences  often  concealed  from  another  in  interpreting  the  same 
facial  expression  on  different  occasions.  Three  of  our  observers 
allowed  these  experiences  to  color  their  judgment;  one  observer 
was  apparently  immune  to  all  influences  even  of  a  highly  emo¬ 
tional  nature  by  way  of  changing  his  judgment.  Often  the  change 
in  interpretation  is  slight,  as,  for  instance  “pain”  on  one  occa¬ 
sion,  and  “agony”  on  the  other,  or  “amazement”  at  one  time  and 
“horror”  at  another. 

In  going  over  our  detailed  accounts,  it  is  noticeable  that  fewer 
changes  are  made  under  suggestion  in  those  emotions  that  are 
usually  classed  as  “primary”;  while  more  radical  changes  of 
judgment  occur  in  those  that  are  not  so  easily  named. 

4  Langfeld,  H.  S.,  Judgments  of  emotions  from  facial  expressions,  /.  of 
Abnormal  Psychol.,  1918,  xiii,  172-184;  Judgment  of  facial  expression  and 
suggestion,  Psychol.  Rev.,  1918,  xxv,  448-494. 


A  COMMENT  UPON  THE  PSYCHOLOGY 
OF  THE  AUDIENCE 

By  Coleman  R.  Griffith 

A  group  of  university  students  registered  in  a  given  course 
and  assembled  for  the  lecture-hour  displays  in  a  unique  manner 
the  typical  characteristics  of  an  audience  of  the  polarized  sort.1 
The  chief  social  relations  obtaining  between  the  speaker  and 
such  an  audience  are  of  the  all-to-one  and  one-to-all  types.2  The 
auditors,  so  far  as  general  dispositions  are  concerned,  are  in  a 
receptive,  expectant  mood,  with  a  homogeneity  of  interest  which 
serves  to  carry  the  lecture-topic  at  a  fairly  high  level  of  attention. 
Such  an  audience  is  characterized  by  a  sophisticated  attitude 
that  eliminates  the  distress  and  disturbance  of  unfamiliarity;  by 
a  general  cortical  set  which  determines  in  advance  of  the  lecture 
the  general  apprehensive  and  affective  patterns ;  by  a  preliminary 
tuning  induced  by  familiar  faces,  significant  apparatus,  drawings, 
charts  and  so  on;  and  finally,  by  associative  tendencies  which 
focus  the  attention  of  the  group  upon  a  single  topic.  It  is  under 
these  conditions  that  the  all-to-one  and  one-to-all  relations  de¬ 
velop;  but  it  is  not  at  all  evident  that  the  bonds  from  every  part 
of  an  audience  are  equally  effective  in  drawing  individual  mem¬ 
bers  into  social  contact  with  the  speaker.  There  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that,  in  the  all-to-one  relations,  an  individual  in  the  peri¬ 
phery  of  the  group  is  as  definitely  polarized  as  individuals  nearer 
the  speaker.  It  might,  on  the  other  hand,  be  conjectured  that 
such  an  individual  was  much  less  an  integral  part  of  the  group, 
for  the  perceptual  and  affective  patterns  from  nearby  neighbors 
must  certainly  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  the  all-to-one 
relations.  Frequently  an  outlying  member  of  a  group  does  not 
have  just  these  clues  to  social  integration  and  the  lack  may,  as 

1  See  Bentley,  M.,  A  preface  to  social  psychology,  Psychol.  Monog.,  1916, 
xcii,  ( vol.  21 ,  No.  4),  2off;  Woolbert,  C.  H.,  The  audience,  ibid,,  pp.  37-54. 

2  Woolbert,  C.  H.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  44ff. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


37 


has  been  recently  suggested,3  make  a  difference  in  the  level  of 
performance  of  such  members  of  the  group. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  common  complaint  among  students 
who  sit  at  the  rear  of  large  lecture-rooms  that  they  can  neither 
hear  the  lecturer  nor  see  his  demonstrations.  If  this  complaint 
is  well  founded,  the  fact  ought  to  be  reflected  in  the  accomplish¬ 
ment  of  such  students.  Now  academic  grades  are  a  measure  of 
accomplishment  in  both  of  the  situations  we  have  mentioned, 
and  it  follows  that  a  critical  analysis  of  the  distribution  of  such 
grades  in  lecture-halls  ought  to  betray  differences  in  performance 
that  cannot  be  attributed  to  differences,  either  in  mental  ability 
or  in  physical  well-being.4 

If  it  can  be  determined,  other  things  being  constant,  that  the 
performance  of  students  at  the  rear  of  a  large  room  is  actually 
less  than  the  performance  of  those  at  or  near  the  front,  the 
students  are  partially  justified  in  their  complaint.  We  are  not 
here  interested  in  the  complaint,  however;  instead,  our  inquiry 
touches  the  question  as  to  whether  a  difference  does  actually  exist 
between  grades  in  different  parts  of  a  room,  and  if  it  does,  for 
what  reasons. 

The  answer  to  our  query  was  sought  by  a  tabulation,  according 
to  the  seat-numbers  in  five  large  audience-rooms  at  the  University 
of  Illinois,  of  the  grades  of  students  registered  in  several  large 
courses.  In  every  case  the  students  were  alphabetically  seated. 
Mid-semestral,  class,  laboratory  and  final  examination  grades,  as 
well  as  the  final  semestral  grades,  were  considered.  Courses 
were  sought  which,  at  the  one  extreme,  were  conducted  with  the 

3  For  example,  Allport  (Allport,  F.  H.,  The  influence  of  the  group  upon 
association  and  thought,  /.  of  Exper.  Psychol 1920,  3,  159-182)  has  shown 
that  performance  in  association  and  thought  depends  to  a  certain  extent 
upon  social  factors. 

4  Recent  experimental  education  has,  as  we  all  know,  been  deeply  con¬ 
cerned  with  differences  of  performance  which  parallel  differences  of  mental 
ability.  A  great  deal  of  attention  has  been  given  also  to  the  influence  of 
health  and  of  other  physical  factors  on  the  degree  of  performance.  We  are 
not  here  concerned  with  intelligence  ratings,  however,  but  are  assuming 
that  mental  ability,  physical  well-being,  and  similar  factors  are  evenly  dis¬ 
tributed,  under  the  conditions  which  we  have  chosen,  throughout  a  given 
auditorium. 


38 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


minimal  amount  of  lecturing  and  a  maximal  amount  of  quiz  and 
laboratory,  and,  at  the  other  extreme,  were  conducted  with  a 
maximal  amount  of  lectures  and  a  minimal  amount  of  quiz  and 
laboratory  work. 

Now  the  tabulation  of  something  like  twenty  thousand  such 

TABLE  I 

Showing  1st  and  2nd  Quiz  grades,  final  examination  grade,  and  final 
semestral  grade  of  all  students  in  Course - ,  2nd  semester,  1916-1917. 


ROWS 

GRADES 

THE 

OCCUPIED  SEATS 

AVER. 

M.V. 

AVER. 

(all 

GRDS.) 

AV. 

OF 

M.V. 

1st  Quiz 

18 

80 

60 

5i 

52.2 

1 77 

8 

2nd  Quiz 

50 

77 

60 

65 

63-0 

8.0 

60.1 

12.6 

Final  Ex. 

53 

8l 

79 

50 

65-7 

14.2 

Final 

60 

78 

75 

50 

657 

10.7 

1st  Quiz 

77 

44 

94 

36 

71  75  48  69  32  79 

62.5 

18.1 

7 

2nd  Quiz 

83 

90 

98 

51 

91  76  75 

74  55  93 

78.6 

12.4 

75-6 

12.0 

Final  Ex. 

85 

79 

95 

85 

99  84  73  84  39  86 

80.9 

10.3 

Final 

86 

81 

9i 

71 

90  87  76  78  60  86 

80.6 

7-3 

1st  Quiz 

40 

69 

6l 

50  93  84  79  42  7 1 

654 

15-6 

6 

2nd  Quiz 

66 

90 

73 

83  95  851  84  64  75 

794 

8.8 

76.8 

10.0 

Final  Ex. 

80 

89 

81 

61  98  81  96  83  80 

83.2 

8.2 

Final 

65 

80 

78 

72  92  83  87  71  82 

79.0 

74 

1st  Quiz 

69 

67 

93 

69  44 

55  92 

69.8 

12.9 

5 

2nd  Quiz 

74 

76 

84 

7 1  5i 

78  89 

747 

8.0 

75-9 

8.1 

Final  Ex. 

77 

83 

88 

80  80 

64  89 

80.1 

5-6 

Final 

75 

80 

87 

77  70 

73  9i 

79-0 

6.0 

1st  Quiz 

65 

66 

95 

37 

82  69  80 

61  76 

70.1 

9-5 

4 

2nd  Quiz 

70 

76 

84 

59 

76  75  95 

70  99 

78.2 

8.1 

78.8 

7.i 

Final  Ex. 

81 

90 

93 

77 

85  86  93 

73  93 

857 

6.1 

Final 

80 

82 

86 

72 

82  80  98 

73  90 

82.5 

57 

1st  Quiz 

72 

94 

63 

60 

70  69 

89  56 

71.6 

10.7 

3 

2nd  Quiz 

59 

80 

77 

77 

82  80 

80  71 

757 

54 

76.0 

6.3 

Final  Ex. 

73 

85 

87 

85 

79  68 

73  90 

80.0 

6.7 

Final 

73 

78 

80 

74 

80  75 

75  78 

76.6 

24 

1st  Quiz 

83 

35 

80 

56 

60  89  88  62  66  66 

68.5 

13.2 

2 

2nd  Quiz 

68 

55 

55 

61 

60  96  71  63  88  60 

677 

II-5 

740 

9-5 

Final  Ex. 

70 

58 

79 

85 

88  94  90  85  90  85 

82.4 

7-9 

Final 

75 

65 

78 

74 

71  92  84  77  85  73 

774 

5-3 

1st  Quiz 

81 

88 

62 

69 

86  95 

30  21 

66.5 

21.6 

1 

2nd  Quiz 

76 

67 

58 

69 

74  98 

52  46 

67.5 

10.5 

72.3 

12.8 

Final  Ex. 

96 

86 

7 1 

54 

76  91 

85  73 

79-0 

10.5 

Final 

86 

86 

70 

65 

77  93 

71  62 

76.2 

8.6 

SPEAKER’S  PLATFORM 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


39 


grades  does  make  it  evident  that,  with  the  significant  exceptions 
to  be  noted  below,  the  accomplishment  of  students’  in  the  front 
rows  is  from  3%  to  8%  less  than  that  of  students  in  the  middle 
of  the  room.  The  results  indicate,  further,  that  there  is  a  still 
more  marked  difference, — approximately  10%, — between  the 
grades  in  the  middle  of  the  room  and  the  grades  found  in  one  or 
two  rows  at  the  rear.  We  shall  appeal  by  way  of  illustration,  to 
a  lecture-group  which  bears  out  these  facts  in  a  distinctive  man¬ 
ner.  In  Table  I  are  put  down  the  actual  grades  received  by 

students  in  a  course  in  -  given  during  the  first  semester 

of  1916-17.  Two  preliminary  quiz  grades,  the  final  examination 
grade,  and  the  final  grade  for  the  course  are  included.  The 
averages  show  clearly  enough  that  the  individuals  occupying 
front  seats  have  lower  grades  than  those  in  the  second  and 
third  rows,  the  difference  being  greatest  between  the  first  and 
fourth  rows.  In  like  manner,  the  individuals  at  the  back  of  the 
room  (row  8)  are  18.7%  lower  than  the  average  of  the  fourth 
row. 

This  striking  difference  varies  during  the  course  of  the  semes¬ 
ter,  as  can  be  discerned  in  Table  II,  which  is  a  further  analysis 
of  Table  I.  For  example,  the  average  grades  at  the  time  of  the 

TABLE  II 


Av. 

Av. 

Av. 

Av. 

Row 

1st  Quiz 

2nd  Quiz 

Final  Exam. 

Sem.  Grade 

8 

52.2 

63.0 

657 

65-7 

7 

62.5 

78.6 

80.9 

80.6 

6 

654 

794 

83.2 

79-0 

5 

69.8 

747 

80.1 

79.0 

4 

70.1 

78.2 

857 

82.5 

3 

71.6 

75-7 

80.0 

76.6 

2 

68.5 

67.7 

82.4 

774 

I 

66.5 

67.5 

79.0 

76.2 

first  written  quiz  decrease  from  the  third  row  in  the  following 
manner:  71.6,  70.1,  69.8,  65.4,  62.5,  62.2,  giving  a  maximal 
difference  of  19.4%  It  will  be  observed  that  10.3%  of  this  dif¬ 
ference  falls  between  the  seventh  and  eighth  rows,  so  that  the 
seventh  row  is  9.1%  lower  than  the  third  row.  As  the  semester 
proceeds,  however,  the  individuals  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  rows 
improve  with  respect  to  the  central  group,  with  the  result  that, 
at  the  time  of  the  final  examination,  the  average  from  the  sev- 


40 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


enth  row  is  but  4.9%  lower  than  the  highest  average,  which  falls 
at  the  fourth  row.  It  is  obvious  that  some  factor,  partly  over¬ 
come  during  the  semester,  serves  to  act  as  a  handicap  to  the 
individuals  at  the  back  of  the  room.  The  large  initial  differ¬ 
ence  between  the  seventh  and  eighth  rows  and  its  persistence 
during  the  semester  is  characteristic  of  many  of  our  tabulations, 
and  the  cause  is  to  be  sought,  apparently,  in  some  disadvantageous 
condition  which  especially  hampers  these  students  in  the  eighth 
row  for  the  entire  semester.  Occasionally,  however,  the  back  row 
does  recover  and  then  no  appreciable  difference  in  distribution  is 
observable  in  the  final  grades.  That  there  is  still  a  difference  in 
the  degree  of  accomplishment  within  the  group  at  large,  however, 
may  be  seen  from  the  fact  (cf.  Table  III)  that  more  students 

TABLE  III 

%  % 


Row  Below  40  40-49 

50-59 

60-69 

70-79 

80-89 

90-99  Below  70 

Above 

8 

1 

0 

5 

4 

3 

2 

0 

66 

34 

7 

3 

2 

2 

2 

13 

9 

9 

23 

77 

6 

0 

2 

1 

6 

7 

14 

6 

25 

75 

5 

0 

1 

2 

4 

9 

8 

4 

25 

75 

4 

1 

0 

1 

4 

10 

12 

8 

1 7 

83 

3 

0 

0 

2 

4 

14 

10 

2 

19 

81 

2 

1 

0 

3 

10 

9 

11 

5 

36 

64 

1 

2 

1 

3 

6 

7 

7 

5 

39 

61 

in  the  front  than  in  the  middle  receive  grades  below  70%,  while 
over  twice  as  many  in  the  back  rows  are  graded  below  70%. 
There  is  a  tendency,  therefore,  more  marked  at  first,  for  high 
grades  to  be  grouped  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  The  significance 
of  this  distribution  is  made  clearer  by  the  fact  that,  at  the  front 
of  the  room,  a  little  over  a  quarter  of  the  students  advance  in 
their  grades  as  the  semester  goes  on,  while,  at  the  back  of  the 
room,  more  than  one-half  of  the  grades  improve  during  the  se¬ 
mester.  In  other  words,  the  poor  accomplishment  of  students  at 
the  front  and  at  the  back,  at  the  time  of  the  first  written  quiz, 
seems  to  act  as  an  incentive  to  greater  efforts  and  the  improve¬ 
ment  that  is  shown  during  the  semester  is  not  at  all  equaled  by 
the  improvement  of  students  in  the  middle  group,  for  whom  there 
is,  presumably,  no  such  incentive. 

The  large  difference  between  grades  from  the  middle  and  from 
the  front  and  rear  sections  of  a  room,  at  the  time  of  the  first 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


4i 


written  quiz,  with  the  somewhat  smaller  difference  at  the  end  of 
the  course,  is  more  significant  than  at  first  appears.  It  has  been 
found,  for  example,  that  the  difference  is  more  pronounced  in 
courses  where  relatively  greater  emphasis  is  placed  on  the  material 
given  in  lectures.  Students  who  are  quizzed  but  once  a  week  on 
two  lectures  show  about  twice  as  great  a  difference  as  appears 
where  one  lecture  furnishes  material  for  one  or  more  quizzes  and 
one  or  more  laboratory  hours.  Furthermore,  an  informal  lec¬ 
ture  method  (adopted  most  frequently  with  small  groups)  shows 
on  the  average  a  still  smaller  degree  of  difference,  the  variation 
in  this  case  being  but  three  or  four  per  cent.  That  is  to  say, 
there  is  not  here  so  large  a  difference  between  the  number  of 
students  who  receive  exceptionally  low  or  high  grades  in  various 
parts  of  the  room. 

There  are  other  peculiarities  to  be  noticed.  If  a  group  of 
students  is  removed  from  the  main  body  by  an  aisle  or  by  a 
group  of  empty  seats,  their  grades  are  on  the  average  5-10% 
lower  than  the  grades  of  students  sitting  in  the  main  section. 
For  example,  in  Lecture  Group  C  an  aisle  running  parallel  with 
the  platform  separated  about  fifty  students  from  the  main  group 
of  approximately  400.  The  final  average  of  the  students  just 
in  front  of  the  aisle  and  belonging  to  the  main  group  was  68.0. 
The  average  of  the  50  students  just  behind  the  aisle  was  61.0. 
In  Lecture  Group  D  the  two  aisles  ran  at  right  angles  to  the  plat¬ 
form.  The  main  body  of  students  sat  in  the  area  directly  in 
front  of  the  lecture  platform.  Some  25  students  sat  across  the 
aisle  to  the  right  and  an  equal  number  across  the  aisle  to  the 
left.  The  average  performance  of  the  central  group  was  80.3 
and  of  the  lateral  groups,  76.0.  In  this  later  case  the  difference 
is  materially  increased  if  the  grades  of  students  at  the  rear  of 
the  rooms  are  omitted.  Again,  within  the  range  of  the  rooms 
here  included,  which  seat  from  70  to  500  students,  the  difference 
does  not  seem, — as  one  might  expect, — to  be  a  function  of  the 
absolute  size  of  the  room.  Again,  the  fact  that  practically  all 
of  our  groups  have  shown  the  decrease  in  question  indicates  that 
the  difference  is  not  essentially  dependent  on  the  lecturer;  al¬ 
though  we  have  seen  that  an  informal  method  with  small  groups 


42 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


may  result  in  a  smaller  difference.  And,  finally,  an  area  of  low 
grades  at  the  rear  of  a  small  group  in  a  large  lecture  room  may 
coincide  with  the  area  of  maximal  grades  for  a  large  group  in 
the  same  room.  That  is  to  say,  the  region  of  low  grades  so 
moves  with  the  periphery  of  an  audience  as  that  low  (peripheral 
grades  of  a  small  group  actually  fall  in  the  very  same  seats  as 
do  the  high  (central)  grades  of  a  large  group.5  This  fact  can 
be  seen  to  advantage  in  Figure  I,  where  the  curves  represent  the 
average  grades  of  different  rows  in  classes  occupying  seven, 
eight,  and  ten  rows. 

To  summarize:  The  statistical  treatment  of  student’s  grades 
suggests  that  there  is  an  appreciable  difference  between  the  work 
and  the  accomplishment  of  individuals  who  occupy  a  central 
position  in  a  lecture  room  and  the  work  and  accomplishment  of 
those  who  occupy  the  outlying  sections.  This  difference,  which 
is  greater  at  the  time  of  the  first  quiz  than  at  a  later  time,  is 
also  influenced  by  a  natural  division  between  groups,  such  as  an 
aisle  or  a  few  empty  seats  or  by  pillars,  and  by  the  degree  in 
which  the  course  is  dependent  on  lectures.  Frequent  small  sec¬ 
tional  and  laboratory  meetings  tend  to  reduce  the  difference, 
which  appars  to  be  dependent  upon  the  position  of  the  student 
with  reference  to  the  rest  of  the  group. 

Now  there  are  three  factors  directly  related  to  the  distance 
between  auditor  and  speaker  which  might  tend,  in  a  large  group, 
to  bring  about  the  differences  of  performance  which  we  have 
found.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  difference  in  the  perceptual 

5  In  all  the  averages  we  have  given,  the  m.  v.  is,  as  a  rule,  nearly  if  not 
quite  as  large  as  the  differences  we  have  cited  as  existing  between  the 
center  and  the  periphery  of  a  room.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that 
the  one  factor  of  differences  in  mental  ability  accounts  for  a  large  part  of 
the  m.  v.  When  proper  allowance  for  this  factor  is  made  by  discovering 
the  performance  of  the  same  or  similar  students  in  groups  of  thirty  or  less, 
the  m.  v.  of  the  middle  group  is  negligible;  but  at  the  front  and  especially 
at  the  rear  the  m.  v.  is  still  large  and  must  be  accounted  for.  We  are  in¬ 
clined  to  urge  that  the  large  m.  v.  in  these  regions  is  not  an  indication  of 
unreliability  or  of  inadequate  sampling  but  that  it  is  further  evidence  that 
the  individuals  in  these  areas  are  working  under  some  kind  of  a  handicap. 
A  few  overcome  the  handicap  and  obtain  average  or  exceptional  grades,  while 
the  remainder  succumb  and  receive  exceptionally  low  grades. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


43 


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subjects  but  meeting  in  the  same  room. 

factors  dependent  upon  the  distance  of  the  student  from  the  lec¬ 
ture-desk.  It  is  apparent,  of  course,  that  while  the  acoustic  prop¬ 
erties  of  lecture-halls  widely  differ,  in  any  one  of  them  students 
sitting  moderately  near  a  lecturer  have  better  opportunities  for 
hearing.  The  same  is  true  of  visual  factors,  for  frequently  the 
success  of  a  lecture  depends  largely  upon  demonstrations  involv¬ 
ing  small  objects  and  delicate  manipulations,  upon  charts  having 
inadequate  size  or  illumination,  and  upon  the  facial  expression 
and  movements  of  the  speaker.  Moreover,  lecturers  differ  in  their 
ability  to  enunciate  clearly  as  well  as  in  the  intensity  and  in  the 
carrying  power  of  their  voices. 

In  the  second  place,  there  is  a  difference  in  the  direction  of 
attention  resulting  from  the  distance  of  the  student  from  the 
lecture-desk.  Our  results  suggest  that  there  are  three  zones  in 
which  the  direction  of  attention  changes.  We  have  found,  for 


44 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


example,  that,  on  the  whole,  individuals  sitting  very  near  the 
lecturer  have  lower  averages  than  those  a  little  further  removed. 
In  these  cases,  it  is  not  at  all  impossible  that  the  attention  of 
the  student  is  taken  up  with  a  variety  of  irrelevant  details.  That 
is  to  say,  there  are  facial  changes  in  the  speaker,  idiosyncrasies 
of  clothing  and  of  gesture,  and  a  host  of  other  items  that  thrust 
themselves  upon  the  attention  of  those  near  at  hand.  Unessential 
details  of  the  apparatus  are  also  a  source  of  distraction.  Further 
back,  these  details  are  lost  and  here,  curiously  enough,  the  highest 
averages  are  generally  to  be  found.  This  group  is  in  the  best 
position  for  attention  to  the  meaning  and  the  sequence  of  the 
discourse.  At  the  rear,  still  another  situation  appears.  We  have 
already  indicated  that  here  the  perceptual  processes  may  be  at 
fault.  This  undoubtedly  leads  to  a  frequent  shifting  of  atten¬ 
tion  from  the  lecture.  It  seems,  then,  that  there  may  be  an  op¬ 
timal  distance  at  which  the  perceptual  and  attentive  factors  are 
the  very  best.  In  addition  to  these  facts,  lecturers  differ  in  the 
amount  of  perceptual  detail  presented  which  is  apt  to  draw 
attention.  Lecture-rooms  differ,  also,  in  the  distance  between 
the  lecture  platform  and  the  first  row  of  seats.  Furthermore, 
some  lecture  sections  make  a  practice  of  leaving  two  or  three 
vacant  rows  at  the  front.  All  of  these  factors  would  bear  a 
direct  relation  to  the  steadiness  and  the  direction  of  the  attention 
elicited. 

There  is  still  another  factor  which  may  account  for  the  dis¬ 
crepancy  of  performance  between  groups  near  to  and  remote  from 
the  lecturer.  This  factor  is  a  result  of  the  kind  of  instruction 
which  students  directly  or  indirectly  give  themselves  and  it  is 
doubtless  dependent,  in  large  measure,  upon  the  factors  which 
we  have  already  discussed.  Among  students  sitting  near  a  lec¬ 
turer,  this  instruction  may  take  either  of  two  forms.  The  student 
may,  in  a  large  course,  congratulate  himself  on  having  a  fortunate 
location  and  so  make  it  a  means  of  getting  all  that  goes  on;  or  he 
may  be  subject  to  a  negative  instruction  expressed  in  the  words: 
“I  am  near  the  front.  It  will  be  so  easy  to  get  everything  that  I 
need  not  exert  myself.”  As  regards  the  group  in  the  center, 
we  find  that  it  is  again  in  an  optimal  position;  these  individuals 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


45 


are  not  near  enough  to  be  cognizant  of  everything,  relevant  and 
irrelevant,  that  is  going  on;  and  neither  are  they  so  far  away 
as  to  be  in  doubt.  At  the  extreme  rear,  however,  there  are, 
again,  two  kinds  of  instruction.  Some  individuals,  appreciating 
the  fact  that  they  are  working  under  a  handicap,  realize  that 
they  must  give  special  attention,  if  they  are  to  maintain  their 
standard  of  work.  The  statistical  fact  that  there  are  about  as 
many  high  grades  at  the  rear  as  there  are  low  grades  suggests 
not  only  that  perceptual  and  attentional  factors  need  not  be  de¬ 
terminative;  but  that  this  kind  of  instruction  plays  a  major  part, 
especially  after  the  first  quiz,  when  a  low  grade  adds  an  in¬ 
centive  to  improvement.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  group  of 
individuals  who  take  the  negative  instruction  that  since  they 
have  been  placed  where  they  cannot  well  see  or  hear  they  will  give 
up  the  effort.  Once  again,  the  statistical  fact  that  the  low  averages 
in  the  rear  are  due  not  so  much  to  a  general  lowering  of  the 
grades  as  to  a  larger  number  of  excessively  low  grades  suggests 
that  this  instruction  is  too  often  taken.6 

But  when  we  have  made  due  allowance  for  such  physical 
factors  as  distance  and  intervening  objects,  factors  which  directly 
bear  upon  the  adequacy  of  perception  and  the  degree  and  steadi¬ 
ness  of  attention,  there  still  remains  a  difference  in  performance 
to  be  accounted  for.  The  fact  that  the  low  grades  of  a  small 
group  may  exactly  coincide  in  place  with  the  high  grades  of  a 
large  group  in  the  same  lecture-room  suggests  that  there  is  a 
factor  directly  dependent  upon  the  group  itself.  Now  it  is  a 
commonplace  observation  that  individuals  in  the  periphery  of  a 
large  crowd  are  apt  to  be  restless  and  inattentive  to  whatever 
may  be  attracting  the  interest  of  the  main  group.  That  is  to 
say,  physical  compactness  and  the  interests  and  activities  of  a 
group  polarized  toward  the  speaker  tend  to  knit  together  the 

6  For  example,  note  the  following  quotations  taken  directly  from  students. 
When  asked  what  the  trouble  was,  one  replied:  “Well,  I’ll  tell  you.  It  was 
just  like  this.  In  all  my  other  courses  I  sit  near  the  rear  and  I  have  to  pay 
attention  in  order  to  know  what’s  going  on.  But  in  this  course  I  was  right 
up  at  the  front,  and  it  seemed  a  cinch  so  I  didn’t  care  much  what  notes  I 
took.”  Or,  again,  “Well,  one  thing,  I  think,  is  this.  They  put  me  away  back 
in  the  rear.  I  couldn’t  see  or  hear  very  well  and  I  just  lost  interest.” 


46 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


main  body  of  an  audience  in  a  way  that  is  not  possible  for  indi¬ 
viduals  seated  near  the  borders  of  the  group.  That  this  factor  of 
social  integration  plays  a  large  part  is  indicated  by  the  effect  of 
aisles  or  other  marks  of  separation,  by  the  effect  of  a  dialectic 
or  informal  mode  of  address,  by  the  decrease  in  the  differences 
between  the  optimal  region  and  the  peripheral  regions  as  the 
semester  goes  on  and  as  social  integration  becomes  presumably 
greater,  and  finally,  by  the  fact  that  relatively  low  grades  always 
come  from  the  periphery  of  a  group,  no  matter  how  small  or  how 
large, — within  the  limits  of  the  audiences  here  investigated, — 
the  lecture  group  may  be. 


Fig.  II — Topographic  chart  representing  the  approximate  lines  of  per¬ 
formance  of  an  audience  early  in  the  semester.  Aisles  or  other  obstructions 
would  materially  affect  the  “social  gradients.” 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


47 


We  are  justified,  it  seems,  in  speaking  of  the  topography  of 
the  audience  where  heights  and  depths  are  measured  by  degrees 
of  social  integration  and  hence  amounts  of  individual  achieve¬ 
ment.  If  our  tabulations  represent  the  facts,  a  typical  audience 
could  be  represented  as  in  Figure  II,  where  the  lines  represent 
levels  of  performance  or  degrees  of  achievement  (expressed  in 
numerical  grades)  and  thus  degrees  of  social  integration.  That 
is  to  say,  a  lecture  audience  is  a  polarized  audience  with  reference 
to  the  speaker;  but  it  is  also  integrated  with  respect  to  itself. 

Our  investigation  has  shown,  in  fine,  that  there  is  a  well-marked 
variation  in  academic  grades  which  is  not  due  to  a  difference 
in  mental  ability  or  to  other  factors  referable  to  the  individual 
auditors.  Neither  is  the  variation  due  entirely  to  the  distance 
of  the  auditors  from  the  speaker.  On  the  other  hand,  it  does 
seem  to  be  directly  dependent  upon  position  with  reference  to  the 
total  group.  That  is  to  say,  when  due  allowance  has  been  made 
for  the  factors  mentioned  above,  and  for  the  resulting  mental 
organizations,  a  residual  variation  seems  essentially  to  rest  upon 
the  varying  degrees  of  social  integration  among  the  members  of 
the  group. 


LEADING  AND  LEGIBILITY 
By  Madison  Bentley 

In  the  literate  adult,  reading  is  a  rapid,  smooth-running,  and 
highly  automatized  performance,  which  may  go  on  for  a  long 
time  without  noteworthy  lapse  or  hesitation.  It  appears  to  be 
a  simple  operation,  but  it  is  not.  Even  in  highly  practiced 
subjects  it  can  scarcely  be  called  “simple,”  because  it  depends 
upon  the  cooperation  of  a  large  number  of  heterogeneous  condi¬ 
tions.  In  the  first  place,  the  constant  readjustment  of  the  eyes 
to  the  page  is  complicated.  The  leaps  and  pauses  which  the  eyes 
make  in  reading  involve  a  complex  and  delicate  mechanism. 
Again,  the  total  state  of  the  central  organ  and  its  functional 
tendencies,  taken  together  with  the  mental  concomitants  of  at¬ 
tention,  associability,  and  the  touching  off  of  meaning,  form  a 
second  set  of  conditions  upon  which  reading  depends.  And, 
finally,  the  apprehension  of  the  written  or  printed  characters 
rests  upon  a  large  number  of  local  factors  which  may  retard  or 
facilitate  the  process.  In  the  reading  of  print,  for  example,  the 
color  and  lighting  of  the  page  and  of  the  print,  the  size  and  form 
of  the  type,  the  length  of  the  line  and  the  spacing  of  the  letters, 
all  have  their  effect  upon  the  rapidity  and  the  ease  of  reading. 

These  three  sets  of  conditions,  which  we  may  roughly  distin¬ 
guish  as  peripheral,  central  and  mental,  and  typographical,  have 
suggested  to  psychology  a  great  many  problems.  The  conditions 
are  all  closely  interrelated;  but  experimental  progress  has  been 
made  only  when  one  factor  or  another  has  been  isolated  for 
study.1  In  our  present  small  investigation,  we  have  tried  to 
isolate  one  of  the  “typographical”  conditions;2  the  factor  of 

1  The  psychology  of  reading  has  already  acquired  a  large  bibliography. 
Most  of  the  older  titles  may  be  found  in  Huey,  E.  B.,  The  psychology  and 
pedagogy  of  reading ,  etc.,  New  York,  1912.  A  number  of  recent  pedagogical 
studies  of  reading  are  exemplified  by  the  monograph,  Gray,  C.  T.,  Types 
of  reading  ability ,  Chicago,  1917. 

2  A  partial  list  of  “typographical”  conditions,  naming  twelve  factors  of  this 
sort,  is  given  by  Legros,  L.  A.,  and  Grant,  J.  C.,  in  their  large  work  on 
Typographical  printing  surfaces,  etc.,  London,  1916,  pp.  156-157. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


49 


“leading”  or — more  accurately — of  the  vertical  distance  between 
printed  lines.  The  “leaded  page”  is  a  page  in  which  the  type¬ 
setter  has  inserted  one  or  more  thin  metal  strips  (the  thinnest, 
I -point,  lead  is  about  1/72  inch  thick),  called  “leads,”  between  the 
successive  lines.3  We  do  not  here  directly  consider  the  type¬ 
written  page,  where  only  two  spaces  between  lines,  single-space 
and  double-space,  are  commonly  used. 

In  Roethlein’s  study4  of  the  relation  between  legibility  and  the 
characteristics  of  the  type-face,  it  appeared  that  the  rate  and  the 
ease  of  reading  were  affected — among  other  factors — by  the 
amount  and  disposition  of  the  blank  space  around  each  letter. 
This  fact,  taken  together  with  the  obvious  difficulty  of  reading  a 
crowded  and  close-set  page,  suggests  that  the  open  space  between 
succeeding  lines  may  be  an  important  condition  of  legibility.  The 
study,  then,  of  this  condition  is  our  present  problem. 

Materials  and  procedure.  The  type-face  used  was  of  the  style 
“monotype,”5  a  close  approximation  to  “news  gothic,”  a  style 
which  Roethlein  found  to  stand  relatively  high  in  legibility. 
Figure  I  reproduces  samples  of  our  reading  texts  set  in  12-point 
face  and  body,  without  leads  (a)  and  with  7-point  leading  (b). 

At  first  we  used  a  large  type  (thicker  and  cleaner  than  the 
reproduction  in  Fig.  I)  in  order  that  the  sheets  might  be 
presented  through  a  wide  range  of  distances,  and  so  offer  to 
the  reader  varying  degrees  of  difficulty.  The  type  (12-point) 
was  impressed  on  fine  heavy  paper,  exactly  ten  full  lines  on  each 
sheet.  The  line  was  3  5/16  inches  long,  and  the  sheet  was 

3  The  printers’  unit  of  linear  size  is  the  “point”  =  0.013837  in.,  approx. 
1/72  in.  Twelve  points  make  the  “pica,”  approx.  1/6  in.  The  interlinear  space 
is  not  necessarily  equivalent  to  the  leading,  since  the  type-face  is  sometimes 
smaller  than  the  type-body.  Thus  a  io-point  face  upon  a  13-point  body 
would  give  the  appearance  upon  the  page  of  3-point  leading.  We  shall  use 
“interlinear  space”  as  the  distance  between  the  extreme  projections  (ascend¬ 
ers  and  descenders)  of  the  small  letters  in  succeeding  lines.  In  our  case,  it 
will  be  the  equivalent  of  the  points  of  leading. 

4  Roethlein,  B.  E.,  The  relative  legibility  of  different  faces  of  printing 
types,  Amer.  J.  of  Psychol.,  1912,  xxiii,  1-36,  esp.  p.  28. 

5  The  printing  was  done  with  great  care  and  pains  by  Messrs.  R.  R.  Don¬ 
nelley  &  Sons  Company,  Chicago,  to  whom  the  Laboratory  stands  under  a 
heavy  debt.  It  was  arranged  for  and  followed  through  the  press  by  Dr. 
Carl  Rahn. 


50 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


I  once  knew  an  unworldly-minded  man 
down  in  Maryland  who  built  himself  a  house. 
The  desire  of  his  heart  was  to  have  a  spacious 
entrance  hall,  one  that  would  sound  a  key¬ 
note  of  hospitality  and  give  an  air  of  spacious¬ 
ness  and  taste.  When  he  got  to  planning 
the  house,  he  found  that  he  would  have  to 
build  a  large  living-room  to  justify  this 
much-desired  hall.  He  had  never  a  thought 
of  a  library  until  he  saw  that  one  was  needed 

Fig.  Ia 


According  to  a  well  authenticated  report, 
they  have  no  serious  objections  to  entering 
the  republican  caucus  if  they  are  invited  prop¬ 
erly  and  joining  in  naming  a  candidate  for 
speaker  and  otherwise  participating  in  the 
framing  of  the  republican  legislative  policy. 

The  full  political  significance  of  such  possible 
action  carries  with  it  the  idea  that,  for  the 
first  time  since  the  1912  smash-up,  there 
would  be  a  real  working  agreement  between 

Fig.  Ib 

x  7^4  inches.  The  sheets  were  set  upon  an  exposure- frame 
which  was  movable  along  an  optical  bench  in  the  dark-room. 
The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a  rectangular  wire  frame  covered 
the  black  cloth,  making  a  long  rectangular  tunnel,  9  in  x  12  in. 
The  subject  was  adjusted  to  a  head-rest  and  looked  into  the 
black  tunnel  down  which  he  could  see  the  printed  sheet.  The 
printing  was  evenly  illuminated  by  concealed  electric  lamps  and 
by  reflectors.  After  a  warning  signal,  the  field  was  suddenly 
exposed  by  the  experimenter,  and  the  subject  read  aloud  the  ten 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


5i 


lines  at  top  speed.  An  indicator  showed  the  subject  in  advance 
just  where  the  first  line  would  begain,  and  he  recorded  his  be¬ 
ginning  and  ending  times  by  means  of  a  finger  key  and  an  elec¬ 
trically  controlled  stop-watch. 

In  order  to  ascertain  the  visual  angle  ordinarily  subtended  by 
the  length  of  the  line  as  printed  in  books,  magazines,  and  news¬ 
papers,  and  also  to  procure  variety  in  the  substance  of  the  ex¬ 
cerpts  to  be  read  by  our  subjects,  we  took  extracts  from  eight 
books,  written  upon  a  variety  of  topics,  eight  magazines,  serious 
and  popular,  and  eight  newspapers,  representative  of  this  country 
and  England.  We  gathered  in  this  way  materials  for  90  extracts, 
each  10  lines  long.  Thus  we  had  9  excerpts  for  each  of  10  lead¬ 
ings  (o  and  1,  2,  3  ...  .  9-point),  and  the  whole  90  were  exposed 
in  a  mixed  order  to  each  of  our  readers.  We  took  care  that  the 
order  observed  should  equally  distribute  the  variable  error  of 
practice  to  all  the  10  degrees  of  leadings  used  at  a  given  reading- 
distance.  The  effects  of  practice  which  may  have  been  cumulative 
as  the  experiments  passed  from  one  reading-distance  to  another 
are  not  wholly  eliminated  because  we  did  not  at  first  anticipate 
the  exceedingly  wide  range  of  distances  which  we  were  to  use. 
These  effects  were  practically  cancelled  by  carrying  2-4  distances 
on  together.  They  have  no  special  significance  for  our  problems. 
Fatigue  was  avoided  by  short  periods  of  reading  and  frequent 
intervals  of  rest.  We  kept,  so  far  as  we  could,  to  the  same  hour 
in  the  day  for  a  given  subject;  although  our  whole  series  of 
experiments,  running  through  four  years,  covered  nearly  the 
entire  day  from  8  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m. 

Before  the  reading  began  for  the  hour,  the  following  instruc¬ 
tions  were  read  to  the  subject : 

“At  a  signal  ‘ready’  you  will  be  shown  a  grey  exposure  field. 
Fixate  the  white  pointer.  At  a  second  signal,  ‘now,’  the  grey 
field  will  be  removed,  disclosing  a  block  of  printed  matter.  Be¬ 
gin  immediately  to  read  aloud  and  at  the  same  time  press  the  key 
at  your  right  hand.  Read  as  clearly  and  as  rapidly  as  you  can. 
Do  not  correct  errors.  If  a  strange  or  an  unclear  word  appears, 
say  ‘blank’  and  continue  reading.  As  you  read  the  last  word 
press  the  key  a  second  time.  After  the  reading,  report  the  num¬ 
ber  of  mistakes  made.” 


52 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


We  at  first  proposed  to  include  an  introspective  study  of  the 
processes  involved  in  reading  and  especially  those  affecting  the 
rate ;  but  we  later  discovered  that  such  a  study  properly  belonged 
to  a  separate  inquiry.0 

According  to  a  well  authenticated  report, 
they  have  no  serious  objections  to  entering 
the  republican  caucus  if  they  are  invited  prop¬ 
erly  and  joining  in  naming  a  candidate  for 
speaker  and  otherwise  participating  in  the 
framing  of  the  republican  legislative  policy. 

The  full  political  significance  of  such  possible 
action  carries  with  it  the  idea  that,  for  the 
first  time  since  the  1912  smash-up,  there 
would  be  a  real  working  agreement  between 

Fig.  I  la 

According  to  a  well  authenticated  report, 
they  have  no  serious  objections  to  entering 
the  republican  caucus  if  they  are  invited  prop¬ 
erly  and  joining  in  naming  a  candidate  for 
speaker  and  otherwise  participating  in  the 
framing  of  the  republican  legislative  policy. 

The  full  political  significance  of  such  possible 
action  carries  with  it  the  idea  that,  for  the 
first  time  since  the  1912  smash-up,  there 
would  be  a  real  working  agreement  between 

Fig.  lib 

We  drew  our  readers,  18  in  all,  from  the  departmental  staff, 
from  graduate  students  of  psychology  and  from  advanced  under- 

6  In  the  first  four  thousand  and  more  readings,  the  experimenter  carefully 
followed  the  reading,  with  a  duplicate  copy  of  the  excerpt  before  him,  and 
set  down  on  a  prepared  blank  the  errors  committed.  The  errors  consisted 
of  hesitations,  blanks,  wrong  words,  new  insertions,  attempts  at  corrections, 
breaks  in  the  voice,  nervous  laughter  and  ejaculations.  We  had  hoped  to 
relate  these  lapses,  as  well  as  the  mental  processes  which  underlay  them, 
to  the  time  of  reading  the  ten  lines ;  but  that  also  proved  to  be  impracticable 
because  of  the  variable  factors  of  sense,  meaning,  and  degree  of  familiarity. 
The  introspective  study  still  lies  before  us  to  be  completed. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


53 


graduates,  most  of  whom  were  pursuing  experimental  problems.7 
It  was  soon  found  that  the  subjects  best  adapted  to  the  problem 
were  those  who  maintained  a  steady  and  constant  reading  “set” 
which  kept  them  under  pressure  to  do  their  best  and  to  complete 
the  reading  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  In  a  comparative  study 
of  reading-times  much  depends  upon  the  steadiness  of  this  psycho¬ 
physical  determination.  All  the  readers  save  R  read  without 
knowledge  of  the  problem.  The  substance  of  the  excerpts  had, 
of  course,  its  influence  upon  the  rate  of  reading;  but  our  wide 
choice  (90  extracts  from  a  wide  variety  of  topics,  ranging  from 
epistemology  to  light  fiction  and  the  fashions)  was  designed  to 
distribute  to  the  various  leadings  the  influence  of  the  meaning- 
substance  upon  rate.  The  results  seem  to  justify  our  assump¬ 
tion.8  The  whole  number  of  readings  was  6640.  As  the  ex¬ 
periment  progressed,  it  seemed  advisable  to  secure  a  wider  range 
of  the  size  of  type  and  also  of  reading  distances.  To  this  end, 
we  procured  from  the  University’s  photographer  photographic 
reductions  of  our  sheets  set  in  12-point  type.  These  reductions 
were  made  on  the  scales  of  1.0  to  0.72  and  1.0  to  0.60,  and  they 
represent  approximately  9-point  and  6-point  types.  In  the  re- 

7  The  experiments  are  the  work  of  many  hands.  A  large  part  of  the 
earlier  work  of  planning,  devising,  and  overseeing  fell  to  Dr.  Carl  Rahn, 
who  also  served  as  observer.  One  whole  division  fell  under  the  guidance  of 
Professor  C.  A.  Ruckmick.  The  experiments  were  placed  in  the  competent 
hands  of  Mr.  W.  T.  Doe,  B.A.,  and  Mr.  L.  C.  Raines,  B.A.  Some  of  the 
later  series  were  carried  through  by  Miss  M.  Jones.  The  readers  who  were 
good  enough  to  give  their  time  and  their  enthusiastic  effort  were  Broom 
(Br),  Bentley,  Dr.  R.  C.  (B),  Cuthbert  (C),  Carman  (Ca),  Carlsen  (Cl), 
Fluke  (F),  Fera  (Fe),  Griffith  (G),  Goebel  (Gb),  Gould  (Go),  Greene 
(Gn),  Gross  (Gr),  Knapheide  (Kn),  Kohl  (K),  McKinney  (Me),  Rahn  (R), 
Raines  (Ra),  and  Rutherford  (Ru).  The  graphs  have  been  drawn  by  Dr. 
C.  A.  Griffith. 

8  The  Laboratory  is  to  carry  through  another  study  which  makes  use  of 
nonsense  syllables  and  nonsense  words.  That  sort  of  reading  will,  of  course, 
be  very  different  (in  character  and  mechanism)  from  the  perusal  of  the 
ordinary  sense  page. 

9  An  independent  variation  of  type-size  and  leading  would  have  been 
preferable  to  our  photographic  reductions,  but  the  expense  of  the  typesetting 
was  formidable.  We  shall  speak  of  o-lead,  of  7-leads,  etc.  in  the  photo¬ 
graphic  reductions,  for  the  sake  of  simplicity;  although  the  actual  interlinear 
distances  have  been  changed. 


54 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


ductions,  the  thickness  of  the  single  lead  (1/72  inch)  became 
approximately  1/100  inch  and  1/120  inch.9  We  might  have 
kept  to  our  large  type  and  regarded  only  retinal  size,  but  we  did 
not  care  to  assume  that  a  large  type  at  a  great  distance  would 
be  read  with  the  same  facility  as  a  small  type  at  a  smaller  dis¬ 
tance,  provided  only  the  visual  angles  subtended  by  the  two 
types  (and,  of  course,  the  two  line-lengths)  were  the  same.  The 
conditions  of  reading  are  too  complex  to  warrant  such  an  assump¬ 
tion.  Habitual  reading,  e.g.,  at  a  given  distance  (as  the  “normal 
reading-distance”  for  the  emmotropic  eye)  might  favor  that 
distance  from  the  eyes.  So  we  used  the  three  sizes  of  text  at 
many  distances.  In  general,  the  6-point  and  the  9-point  were 


Fig.  Ill 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


55 


read  at  the  smaller  distances.  Figure  II  shows  samples  (7-point 
leading)  of  these  two  blocks  of  type,  while  Figure  III  displays 
the  distances  at  which  each  type  (at  the  various  leadings)  was 
read. 

The  readings  taken  at  a  distance  of  25-35  cm.  call  for  a 
special  description.  It  seemed  advisable  to  compare  our  results 
acquired  in  the  dark  room  under  somewhat  unusual  conditions 
with  printing  which  should  be  presented  to  the  subject  as  he  or¬ 
dinarily  reads.  To  this  end  we  arranged  a  reading  desk  at  an 
optimal  inclination  and  with  good  indirect  light  derived  from  a 
large  window  obliquely  behind  the  subject.  We  used  the  same 
care  as  elsewhere  in  the  exposure.  The  reader  made  his  own  finer 
adjustment  to  distance  by  moving  his  .head  backward  and  for¬ 
ward  while  a  preliminary  card  rested  upon  the  reading  desk. 
The  distance  chosen  was  read  off  (cornea  to  plane  of  printed 
sheet)  just  before  beginning  and  just  after  finishing  a  set  of 
excerpts.  With  our  9-point  types,  all  the  distances  fall  within 
the  limits  of  25-35  cm.  (ca.  10 — 14  in.)  The  range  was  fairly 
narrow  for  any  single  reader. 

Results:  The  general  trend  of  the  reading-times  at  the  various 
distances  and  with  the  ten  leadings,  0-9,  is  shown  upon  our 
graphs.  Here  the  number  of  leads  (separation  of  the  lines)  is 
set  down  at  the  bottom  of  the  sheet  and  the  time  (sec.)  expended 
on  reading  the  ten  lines  of  printed  matter  is  set  upon  the  line  of 
ordinates.  After  a  careful  inspection  of  results  we  decided  to 
include  in  the  graphs  only  leads  o,  3,  6,  7,  8,  9.  The  others 
appeared  to  have  no  special  significance.  All  the  times  for  any 
one  size  of  type  (6-,  9-,  or  12-point)  are  gathered  together  in  one 
place,  each  graph  standing  for  all  readings  at  a  given  distance. 
Above  each  group  is  a  compound  graph  which  combines  all  those 
beneath  it,  i.e.,  all  12-pt.,  or  9-pt.,  or  6-pt.  results.  The  unbroken 
lines  in  each  group  represent  one  and  the  same  set  of  observers, 
the  broken  lines  another  set,  and  so  on.  The  times  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  subjects  (ave.  of  each  reader’s  trials  at  a  given  distance) 
are  given  in  figures  in  Table  I. 

As  regards  the  reading-times  for  different  distances  and  for 
different  type-sizes,  the  inspection  of  the  graphs  will  make  it 


56 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


apparent  that,  in  general,  the  greater  the  distance  of  the  page 
from  the  eye  the  longer  the  reading-time.  This  rule  obtains 
where  the  group  of  observers  is  the  same  for  different  graphs  and 
also,' — usually,  not  always, — where  different  observers  read  at 


Graph  III 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES  57 

TABLE  I 


12-Point  Type 

Distance  —  176  cm.  Distance  =  136  cm. 

Subj.  o  3  6  7  8  9  Lowest  Subj.  036789  Lowest 


B 

23-4 

22.9 

22.5 

20.8 

21.3 

22.8 

7 

B 

19.4 

19.2 

18.2 

17.9 

18.2 

19.5 

7 

C 

26.8 

26.5 

26.4 

25.2 

26.6 

28.3 

7 

C 

29.8 

28.2 

28.5 

26.7 

27.9 

30.1 

7 

F 

30.6 

30.2 

29-3 

29.1 

28.9 

30.7 

5(28.5) 

F 

23.0 

23.2 

237 

22.3 

23.1 

25.0 

7 

G 

18.0 

17.0 

16.1 

16.0 

17.1 

17.3 

4(i5.9) 

G 

174 

16.4 

16.3 

16.6 

16.7 

17.8 

4(i5.9) 

R 

43-1 

36.6 

36.9 

34-8 

36.1 

35-9 

7 

R 

33-2 

3i. 1 

27.4 

26.7 

254 

28.5 

8(254) 

Ave. 

28.4 

26.6 

26.2 

25.2 

26.0 

27.0 

Ave. 

24.6 

23.6 

22.8 

22.0 

22.7 

24.2 

Distance  — 

156 

cm. 

Distance  = 

1 16 

cm. 

Ca 

26.6 

25-1 

25.6 

23-7 

25-5 

29.5 

7 

Ca 

21. 1 

22.3 

23.1 

21.3 

24.2 

26.9 

1(21.1) 

Gr 

3i. 1 

25.0 

27-3 

25.6 

28.4 

30.1 

3 

Gr 

25.6 

23.2 

24.8 

22.3 

24-5 

25.2 

7 

Me 

31-5 

28.5 

27.6 

26.1 

30.0 

29.9 

7 

Me 

26.6 

23-7 

24.0 

22.8 

24.4 

26.2 

7 

Ra 

19.7 

17.8 

17.6 

16.5 

174 

18.2 

7 

Ra 

25.2 

24.9 

25.6 

22.6 

26.5 

26.2 

7 

Ave. 

27.2 

24.1 

24.5 

23.0 

25.3 

26.9 

Ave. 

24.6 

23-5 

244 

22.2 

24.9 

26.1 

Distance  — 

88  cm. 

Distance  — 

:  96 

m. 

Ca 

24.7 

24.2 

24.2 

21.8 

24.9 

24-5 

7 

Cl 

22.8 

22.1 

21.5 

20.1 

20 .7 

22.8 

7 

Gr 

18.7 

17.3 

18.7 

17.2 

18.5 

18.5 

7 

Go 

18.2 

18.7 

17.2 

18.3 

18.9 

20.5 

6 

Me 

23.6 

22.4 

21.7 

19-3 

22.4 

23.3 

7 

K 

17.5 

17.1 

17.3 

15.6 

17.5 

18.7 

7 

Ra 

15.9 

15.3 

16.0 

14. 1 

16.3 

16. 1 

7 

Ra 

154 

15-6 

i5-i 

151 

I7.I 

17.6 

6&7 

Ave. 

20.7 

19.8 

20.1 

18.1 

20.5 

20.6 

Ave. 

18.5 

18.4 

17.8 

17.3 

18.5 

19.9 

g-Point  Type 

Distance 

>  =  . 

132  cm. 

Distance  — 

72 

cm. 

Subj. 

0 

3 

6 

7 

8 

9 

Lowest  Subj 

.  0 

3 

6 

7 

8 

9 

Lowest 

Fe 

22.8 

19.1 

18.8 

16.0 

17-5 

21.3 

7 

Fe 

14.4 

13.6 

13.8 

12.7 

14. 1 

15-2 

7 

Gn 

28.4 

21.2 

24.0 

20.6 

25.2 

26.4 

7 

18.0 

16.9 

18.8 

Ru 

24.0 

21.4 

20.9 

19-3 

21.4 

22.0 

7 

Ru 

17.0 

1 7-7 

17.9 

7 

Ave. 

247 

20.6 

21.2 

18.6 

21.4 

23.2 

Ave. 

16.2 

15-3 

15-7 

14.8 

16.0 

17.0 

Distance  = 

06  cm. 

Distance  — 

:  88 

cm. 

2(20.3) 

Cl 

30.0 

234 

23.8 

20.6 

24.0 

24.4 

7 

Cl 

26.7 

22.4 

22.1 

21.6 

24 -3 

25.0 

Gn 

20.4 

19.0 

19.2 

18.0 

19.6 

21.8 

7 

Gn 

21.5 

20.0 

21.2 

19.4 

20.5 

21.8 

7 

Ave. 

25.2 

21.2 

21.5 

19.3 

21.8 

23.1 

Ave. 

24.1 

21.2 

21.6 

20.5 

22.4 

234 

Distance 

=  25-35 

cm. 

Br 

1 1.9 

12.1 

11.9 

10.7 

1 1.9 

13.0 

7 

Cl 

11.8 

11.4 

1 1.4 

11.0 

11  -7 

14.0 

7 

Kn 

15-8 

15.6 

154 

14.6 

16.2 

I7.I 

7 

Ru 

15-3 

15-5 

15.5 

14.6 

16.2 

16.9 

7 

Ave.  137  13-6  13.5  12.7  14.0  152 


58 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


TABLE  I  (Continued) 

6-Point  Type 

Distance  =  96  cm.  Distance  =  58  cm. 

Subj.  036789  Lowest  Subj.  036789  Lowest 


Gr. 

27.1 

24.7 

25-3 

234 

24.4 

26.4 

5(22.4) 

Gr 

19.0 

17.6 

1 7.2 

17.2 

17.8 

19.0 

5(i6.7) 

Me 

30.7 

27.8 

29.8 

27.4 

27.5 

29-5 

7 

Me 

24.0 

24.1 

24.0 

21.2 

244 

25-3 

7 

Ra 

16.4 

15-9 

16.4 

15-6 

16.5 

17.2 

7 

Ra 

15.9 

16.5 

16.4 

15.2 

17.8 

18.2 

7 

Ave. 

24.7 

22.8 

°o 

4 

22.1 

22.8 

24.4 

Ave. 

19.6 

19.4 

19.2 

17.9 

20.0 

20.8 

Distance  — 

68  cm. 

Distance  = 

=  48 

cm. 

Cl 

28.8 

25-5 

23.9 

22.7 

251 

24.8 

7 

Cl 

22.3 

20.7 

20.1 

20.5 

20.5 

23.2 

4(18.8) 

Gb 

18.6 

17. 1 

1 7.6 

15.3 

17.0 

19.0 

7 

Gb 

Go 

21. 1 

20.1 

20.3 

19.2 

21.5 

22.5 

7 

Go 

17.2 

17.5 

17.6 

17.3 

18.3 

19.5 

0&2(  I7.2) 

K 

17.0 

20.7 

19.6 

19.5 

20.4 

21.3 

1(17.1) 

K 

17-3 

16.3 

15.8 

15-8 

15.8 

18.2 

i,  2, 6, 7&8 

Ra 

16.8 

18.1 

16.6 

16.2 

17.6 

19.4 

7 

Ra 

16.6 

16.8 

15.9 

15-7 

17.3 

17.8 

7 

Ave. 

20.5 

20.3 

19.6 

18.6 

20.3 

21.4 

Ave. 

18.3 

1— 1 

VJ 

bo 

17.3 

17.3 

18.0 

197 

Distance  — 

88  cm. 

Distance  — 

:  7<?  ■ 

cm. 

C 

27.0 

25-9 

26.3 

26.0 

274 

26.7 

2  &  5 

Ca 

21. 1 

194 

20.2 

18.0 

21.0 

21.6 

7 

G 

15-8 

15.0 

14-3 

14.1 

15.2 

16.2 

7 

Gr 

17.5 

20.6 

19.9 

15.9 

l8.I 

20.0 

7 

Me 

26.1 

24.2 

22.6 

21.0 

24.2 

254 

7 

Ra 

15.6 

154 

15.5 

14.8 

17.0 

17.3 

7 

Ave. 

21.4 

20.4 

20.3 

20.0 

21.3 

21.4 

Ave. 

20.1 

19.9 

19.5 

174 

20.1 

21. 1 

different  distances.  Reading  of  9-point  type  at  the  common 
distance  of  25-35  cm.  (in  daylight),  12-point  type  at  our  shortest 
distances,  88  cm.  and  96  cm.,  and  6-point  type  at  48  cm.  give  the 
shortest  general  times. 

The  most  obvious  regularity  in  the  numerical  result  appears 
upon  a  comparison  of  the  three  “Average”  graphs  at  the  top.  In 
absolute  time  they  differ  somewhat,  the  curve  for  12-pt.  running 
highest  (beginning  at  24  sec.  and  ending  at  24.1  sec.);  but  in 
form  they  are  virtually  coincident.  There  is  a  steady  decline  in 
reading  time  from  the  type  “set  solid”  (o-leading)  to  3-point 
leads,  little  or  no  decline  to  6-point,  then  a  dip  to  7  and  a  rise  to 
9.  The  two  end-times,  o-lead  and  9-point,  are  about  the  same. 
With  all  three  type-sizes  and  at  all  distances  the  minimal  time 
uniformly  appears  with  7-point  lead,  a  result  which  is  reproduced 
in  most  of  the  average  times  of  all  the  individual  subjects  (see 
“Lowest”  column  in  Table  I).10 

10  This  uniformity  in  the  results  appears  especially  noteworthy  when  we 
consider  (1)  that  the  range  of  average  times  for  a  Subj.  throughout  the 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


59 


The  amount  of  time  actually  saved  in  reading  by  the  increase 
of  the  interlinear  space  from  o  to  7-point  leads  varies  with  the 
size  of  type  and  with  the  reading  distance.  Thus  the  optimal 
leading  saves  at  the  rate  of  about  8.5  minutes  in  the  hour  with 
12-point  read  at  156  cm.,  and  about  5  minutes  in  the  hour  at 
88  cm.  With  6-point,  the  saving  is  as  much  as  8  minutes  (78 
cm.)  and  as  little  as  3  minutes  (48  cm.).  The  9-point  texts, 
which  approximate  much  of  the  common  type  of  our  books  and 
periodicals,  showed  a  saving  of  the  optimal  over  the  minimal  lead¬ 
ing  of  about  15  minutes  in  the  hour  at  a  reading-distance  of 
132  cm..  At  the  usual  reading  distance  (about  12  inches),  how¬ 
ever,  the  saved  time  fell  to  about  1/13,  or  a  little  more  than  4 
minutes  in  the  hour.  All  of  these  reductions  in  time,  it  should 
be  noted,  are  obtained  with  an  exceedingly  clean  and  legible  type. 
The  saving  might  be  still  greater  with  a  bad  type-face  which 
should  offer  internal  difficulties  within  the  line. 

The  dip  in  the  curves  at  7-point  leading  is  curiously  constant 
and  strikingly  regular.  It  appears  in  the  several  graphs  repre¬ 
senting  the  several  distances  (25-176  cm.)  and  with  all  groups  of 
observers.  If  the  ends  of  the  graphs  are  covered,  exposing  only 
the  sections  6  to  8,  it  will  appear  that  the  dip  or  “V”  is  nearly 
symmetrical, — that  the  drop  from  6  to  7  and  the  rise  from  7  to  8 
have  practically  the  same  inclination,  i.e.,  leadings  6  and  8  are 
read  with  approximately  the  same  facility,  while  leading  7  is 
distinctly  shorter  in  time.  At  this  point — 7  leads — the  vertical 
distance  between  lines  is,  for  12-point  type,  1/72  x  7  =  ca.  1/10 
in.  For  the  (reduced)  9-point  type,  it  is  1/100  x  7  =  ca.  1/14 

different  leadings  did  not  often  exceed  5  sec.,  and  (2)  that  the  m.v.  of  the 
reading-times  for  any  singe  leading  turned  out  to  be  relatively  large  by 
reason  of  the  variety  of  topics  treated  in  the  ninety  excerpts.  The  following 
is  a  typical  instance. 

Leads  0123456789 
Subj.  C  at  136  cm.  Times 

(in  sec)  29.8  29.4  29.4  28.2  27.8  27.2  28.5  26.7  27.9  30.1 
m.  v.  3.9  2.0  3.2  1.3  3.1  2.8  3.2  3.2  2.3  1.6 

The  wide  variation  in  reading-times  arising  from  the  greater  or  lesser 
difficulty  offered  by  the  text  led  us  to  depend  less  upon  the  m.  v.  as  a 
measure  of  reliability  than  upon  an  accumulation  of  readings  sufficiently  ex¬ 
tensive  to  eliminate  the  variable  error  due  to  the  assimilation  of  meaning. 


6o 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


in.;  and  for  the  (reduced)  6-point,  1/120  x  7  =  ca.  1/17  in. 
The  dip,  then,  at  a  7-point  lead  appears  (a)  at  any  given  reading 
distance  and  with  three  different  interlinear  gaps :  it  also  ap¬ 
pears  (b)  throughout  a  wide  range  of  visual  angles.  It  seems, 
then,  that  the  critical  or  optimal  leading  is  not  entirely  a  matter 
of  the  interlinear  spacing,  of  the  clear  space  left  above  and  below 
the  line,  and  not  entirely  a  matter  of  the  drop  of  the  eye  in  pass¬ 
ing  from  the  end  of  one  line  to  the  beginning  of  the  next.  It  ap¬ 
pears  rather  to  depend  upon  the  ratio 11  of  letter-height  (H)  to 
interlinear  space  (S)  ;  i.e upon  the  ratio  H/S. 

Now  what  the  factors  are  which  make  our  particular  ratio  for 
7  leads  (H/S  =  1.7) 12  optimal  for  reading  under  our  conditions, 
we  can  only  conjecture.  The  determination  of  them  belongs 
to  another  study.  It  is  probable  that  the  eye-movement  is  not 
alone  concerned,13  for  our  three  line-lengths,  35/i6,  2  v  16) 
and  2  inches,  yield  the  same  results;  and  if  it  were  merely  a 
matter  of  clear  space  about  the  centres  of  fixation  upon  the  line, 
there  is  no  reason  why  lines  separated  by  8-point  and  9-point 
leads  should  be  more  slowly  read  than  7-leaded  lines  or  why 
small  type  (as  6-point)  should  require  only  a  small  clear  inter¬ 
linear  space  while  larger  type  requires  a  larger  clear  setting. 

It  is  altogether  likely  that  the  conditions  underlying  this  de¬ 
pendence  of  facility  of  reading  upon  leading  are  complex.  We 
began  with  the  observation  that  reading  is  a  complicated  opera¬ 
tion.  It  appears  now  that  a  slight  variation  of  a  factor  so  simple 
as  the  interlinear  space  may  involve  complicated  ocular  move¬ 
ments  throughout  and  between  the  lines,  indirect  vision,  atten- 

11  It  should  be  noted  that  our  line-length  is  always  a  function  of  this  ratio. 
The  line-length  follows  letter-height  wherever  the  visual  angle  changes, 
whether  from  shift  of  reading-distance  or  from  photographic  reduction  of 
the  text.  The  dependence  of  reading-rate  upon  the  length  of  line  we  are 
pursuing  further. 

12  The  vertical  height  of  the  12-point  letter  (including  ascenders  and  des¬ 
cenders)  is  approximately  1/6  in.  Seven-point  lead,  at  1/72  in.  for  each 
point  —  7/72  in.,  and  1/6  -7-  7/72  =  1.7. 

13  For  a  bibliography  of  the  study  of  eye-movements  see  Schmidt,  W.  A., 
An  experimental  study  in  the  psychology  of  reading,  Chicago  (Univ.  of 
Chicago  Press),  1917. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


61 


tion  under  distractors,  and  little  known  central  conditions  which 
are  responsible  for  the  emergence  of  meaning  from  the  appre¬ 
hension  of  the  symbolic  characters  of  the  printed  page.  The 
methodical  and  technical  means  are  at  hand  for  the  analysis  of 
such  a  tangled  set  of  conditions;  but  the  application  of  them  will 
require  further  experimentation. 

Summary.  It  appears  upon  the  evidence  of  the  experiments 
that  facility  and  rate  of  reading  the  printed  page  are  dependent, 
among  other  factors,  upon  the  vertical  space  left  between  the 
lines  (leading).  Under  our  conditions,  unleaded,  or  closely  set, 
matter  was  read  with  relative  slowness.  With  increase  of  the 
interlinear  space,  the  rate  of  reading  increased  up  to  i/io  inch 
(7-point  leading),  and  then  rapidly  declined. 


THE  PRINTING  OF  BACKBONE  TITLES  ON  THIN 

BOOKS  AND  MAGAZINES 

By  P.  N.  Gould,  L.  C.  Raines,  and  C.  A.  Ruckmick 

To  those  who  have  been  working  in  libraries  containing  maga¬ 
zines  in  their  original  covers  and  bound  books  of  few  pages  it 
has  probably  become  noticeable  that  a  very  unfortunate  lack  of 
uniformity  exists  in  the  printing  of  titles  lengthwise  on  the  backs 
of  these  magazines  and  books.  While  there  is  in  different  coun¬ 
tries  a  general  disposition  to  conform  to  some  standard  of  print¬ 
ing,  there  is  by  no  means  an  agreement  on  the  subject  in  any  one 
country.  In  general  and  with  many  exceptions,  the  European 
plan  is  to  print  such  titles  from  bottom  to  top,  while  the  American 
plan,  if  there  is  one,  is  to  print  in  the  reverse  direction.  A  con¬ 
siderable  amount  of  discussion  has  arisen  on  the  subject,  especially 
in  connection  with  library  practice  and  in  the  printers’  journals.1 
There  are  related  questions,  such  as  the  subscriptions  to  full- 
page  plates  inserted  in  reading  material,2  and  the  insertion  of 
omitted  matter  in  writing  when  the  insertion  is  titled  in  one 
direction  or  the  other. 

Many  persons,  in  discussing  the  subject,  seem  to  take  the  view 
that  while  they  may  have  individual  preferences  in  the  matter 
they  would  be  willing  to  set  these  aside  if  a  universal  practice 
could  be  established.  Libraries  insist,  for  the  most  part,  on  the 
advantages  derived  from  printing  titles  in  the  direction  from  top 
to  bottom,  arguing  that  when  magazines  are  stacked  on  tables, 
newsstands,  and  temporarily  on  shelves,  the  logical  direction, 
with  the  face  up,  would  be  from  top  to  bottom,  or,  when  they 
are  in  this  position,  from  left  to  right. 

Some  preliminary  investigations,  though  crude,  have  been 

1  American  Printer,  August  5,  1918.  Printing  Art,  1918,  xxxii,  62.  Pub¬ 
lishers’  Weekly,  1918,  xciv,  1763,  1994. 

2  Preliminary  Report  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  Standards  for  Graphic 
Presentation,  Amer.  Soc.  of  Mech.  Eng.,  N.  Y. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


63 


made  on  the  question,  but  so  far  apparently  no  experimental 
work  has  been  published.  One  preliminary  study  resulted  in  the 
decision  of  seven  in  favor  of  printing  from  bottom  up  and  two 
in  placing  the  lettering  from  top  down.  Three  additional 
answers,  however,  were  noncommittal.  In  another  inquiry  an 
investigator  found  that  among  men  of  his  own  staff  who  were 
preserving  pamphlets  and  frequently  writing  titles  themselves  on 
the  backbone,  nine  out  of  ten  were  using  the  method  which  in¬ 
volved  printing  from  bottom  to  top.  Three  out  of  four  of  them 
declared  that  any  other  method  was  unnatural.  On  the  other 
hand,  so  eminent  an  authority  as  Melvil  Dewey  says,  “The  state¬ 
ment  that  it  has  been  demonstrated  by  tests  to  be  easier  and 
more  natural  to  read  from  bottom  to  top  contradicts  all  the  ex¬ 
periments  and  investigations  I  have  made  for  forty  years.” 

Obviously,  on  further  consideration,  there  are  a  number  of 
circumstances  which  are  indirectly  involved  in  the  question.  If 
ease  of  reading  is  to  be  a  criterion,  then  the  way  in  which  the 
head  is  more  readily  inclined  undoubtedly  has  an  important 
bearing.  A  great  number  of  individuals,  from  replies  received 
on  the  subject,  indicate  that  it  is  easier  for  them  to  tilt  the  head 
to  the  left.  And,  indeed,  there  is  some  basis  on  the  side  of  the 
musculature  of  the  eyes,  neck  and  shoulders  which  might  favor 
this  inclination.3  It  is  possible,  also,  that  the  tilt  of  the  head  in 
writing,  being  for  the  most  part  to  the  left,  has  a  bearing  on 
the  problem.  One  correspondent,  for  instance,  noted  that  during 
the  time  that  he  was  learning  to  read  and  write  Hebrew  and  for 
some  time  thereafter  his  head  would  habitually  tilt  to  the  right 
instead  of  to  the  left.  Another  authority  widely  known  for  his 
investigations  of  eye-movement  states  that  he  has  noticed  the 
invariable  practice  of  right-handed  people  tilting  their  penman¬ 
ship  upward,  while  left-handed  individuals  habitually  write 
downward. 

A  relatively  large  number  of  individuals  have  remarked  that 
a  differentiation  exists  between  the  use  of  either  hand  in  taking 
books  from  the  library  shelves,  the  left  hand  being  used  to 

3  See  the  discussion  of  head-movements  relative  to  Listing’s  Law  in  Helm¬ 
holtz,  H.,  Handbuch  der  physiologischen  Optik,  3rd  ed.,  vol.  iii,  Hamburg  and 
Leipzig,  1910,  pp.  120-123. 


64 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


withdraw  the  book  from  the  shelf  while  the  right  is  preparing  to 
finger  the  pages,  and  in  this  position  the  body  would  be  more 
inclined  toward  the  left.  All  of  these  suppositions  are  con¬ 
ditioned  by  the  height  of  the  shelf  above  or  below  the  level  of 
the  eyes,  as  well  as  by  the  location  of  the  shelf  to  the  right  or 
to  the  left  of  the  individual.  Several  replies  indicate  also  that 
the  lighting  effect  may  be  a  complicating  factor.  Those  who 
argue  in  favor  of  printing  from  top  to  bottom  seem  to  be  im¬ 
pressed  by  the  analogy  of  reading  printed  lines  from  the  top 
of  the  page  down  to  the  bottom.  But  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
analogy  is  overdrawn  and  that  the  factors  involved  in  reading 
titles  of  books,  when  printed  at  right  angles  to  the  usual  move¬ 
ment  of  the  eyes,  presents  a  totally  different  situation  from  the 
ocular  excursions  of  ordinary  reading. 

Experimental  Series 

Apparatus.  The  entire  problem  was  taken  over  as  an  ex¬ 
perimental  investigation  in  the  psychology  laboratory,  and  con¬ 
ditions  were  devised  to  simulate  those  of  the  library.  In  one  of 
the  dark  rooms  of  the  laboratory  a  shelf  was  designed  to  be 
fastened  in  a  number  of  positions  on  the  wall,  being  adjusted 
to  heights  of  four,  five  and  sTx  feet  from  the  floor,  these  being 
standard  heights  in  library  practice.  On  the  shelf  about  a  score 
of  books  were  placed  and  among  them  a  so-called  “dummy” 
was  inserted.  This  dummy  measured  26  cm.  long  by  2  cm.  thick. 
Along  its  front  edge  a  sliding  arrangement  was  provided  into 
which  printed  titles  could  be  placed.  These  titles  were  printed 
on  heavy  white  paper  and  consisted  of  thirty-eight  different 
names  of  standard  American  publications  such  as: 

THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  WORLD 
THE  AMERICAN  FORESTRY 
THE  AMERICAN  WOOL  REVIEW 
DUNN’S  INTERNATIONAL  REVIEW 
THE  MARINE  REVIEW 
THE  CONTEMPORARY  REVIEW 


Fig. 


t 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


65 


In  front  of  the  shelf  a  double  scissors-like  shutter  was  pro¬ 
vided  which  would  expose  to  view  the  entire  length  of  the 
“dummy”  and  some  of  the  neighboring  books  without  suggesting 
by  its  own  movement  the  direction  to  be  followed  in  reading. 
Later  in  the  experimental  series,  the  “dummy”  was  replaced  by 
a  device  that  would  hold  six  or  more  titles  at  once,  the  shutter 
was  opened  through  an  arrangement  of  strings,  elastic  bands,  and 
pulleys,  operated  by  the  experimenter.  An  electrically  operated 
stopwatch  was  used  to  time  exposures  and  reactions  of  observers. 
The  entire  shelf  and  shutters  were  painted  a  dead  black  and  the 
room  was  lighted  uniformly  by  means  of  an  artificial  “noon-day” 
light  of  high  power.  In  another  part  of  the  experiment  a  head 
rest  was  provided.  The  observer  was  uniformly  three  feet  in 
front  of  the  title  to  be  read.  A  pointer  was  affixed  to  a  wire¬ 
frame  to  indicate  the  approximate  place  at  which  the  titles  were 
to  be  read. 

Procedure:  The  experimental  investigation  began  early  in 
1919  and  lasted  through  the  summer  of  that  year.  The  observers, 
fourteen  in  number,  were  selected  from  among  the  advanced 
classes  in  experimental  psychology.  They  were  given  instruc¬ 
tions  to  read  aloud  as  clearly  as  possible,  and  at  their  normal 
speed,  the  title  that  was  to  be  presented  to  them.  Introspections 
were  recorded  in  about  half  the  cases. 

The  series  were  divided,  in  the  first  group  of  experiments,  so 
that  36  observations  were  taken  with  the  titles  at  the  level  of  the 
eyes,  the  same  number  below,  and  an  equal  number  above  the 
level  of  the  eyes.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  reading  of  a  single 
title  could  not  be  accurately  timed  under  the  conditions  of  the  ex¬ 
periment,  so,  for  the  most  part,  cards  were  made  up  of  from 
four  to  eight  titles  running  in  the  same  direction,  to  be  read  con¬ 
secutively,  and  the  resulting  time  divided  by  the  number  of  titles 
read.  In  the  second  group  of  experiments  the  observers  were 
asked  to  walk  from  a  spot  about  five  feet  to  the  right  or  to  the 
left  of  the  shelf  and  then  walk  towards  the  shelf,  on  the  assump¬ 
tion  that  entrance  to  the  room  constantly  from  one  direction 
would  itself  influence  the  observer  to  favor  one  side  or  the  other. 


66 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


In  a  final  group  the  observer’s  head  was  placed  in  a  head-rest 
which  prevented  movement  to  either  side. 

In  each  case,  after  the  observer  had  taken  his  position  the 
experimenter  would  open  the  shutter  and  release  the  stop  watch 
with  the  same  movement.  When  the  reading  was  completed  the 
watch  was  electrically  stopped.  The  arrangement  of  the  cards 
was  determined  by  a  chance  order  but  care  was  taken  that  each 
presentation  to  the  left,  that  is  from  bottom  to  top,  was  at  some 
place  matched  by  a  presentation  of  the  same  material  in  the  op¬ 
posite  direction. 

As  a  result  of  our  questionnaire  (see  below)  we  have  also  the  unpublished 
records  of  some  class  experiments  conducted  by  Professor  A.  P.  Weiss  of  the 
Ohio  State  University  and  of  a  few  individual  experiments  performed  in 
the  same  laboratory.  Some  disjointed  printed  material  mounted  on  a  board 
and  200  words  in  length  was  presented  to  the  observer  to  read  aloud  as 
rapidly  as  he  could  accurately  do  so.  The  time  was  recorded  in  seconds. 
Both  the  copy  and  the  observer  were  given  a  variety  of  positions,  viz.,  (i) 
the  copy  upright  and  the  observer  upright,  material  read  from  left  to  right; 

(2)  copy  upside  down,  observer  erect,  material  read  from  left  to  right; 

(3)  copy  turned  to  the  left  90  degrees,  observer  erect,  material  read  from 
bottom  up;  (4)  copy  turned  to  the  right  90  degrees,  observer  erect,  material 
read  from  top  down;  (5)  copy  turned  to  the  left  90  degrees,  observer  bending 
to  the  left  90  degrees,  material  read  from  bottom  to  top;  (6)  copy  turned  to 
the  left  90  degrees,  observer  bending  to  the  right  90  degrees,  material  read 
from  bottom  to  top;  (7)  copy  turned  to  the  right  90  degrees,  observer  bend¬ 
ing  to  the  left  90  degrees,  material  read  from  top  to  bottom ;  (8)  copy 
turned  to  the  right  90  degrees,  observer  to  the  right  90  degrees,  material 
read  from  top  to  bottom. 

The  time  values  in  these  series  do  not  present  significant  differences.  For 
example,  there  is  a  difference  of  only  two  seconds  in  the  median  values  of 
series  5  and  8,  which  series  approximate  most  closely  the  question  raised  in 
our  problem.  It  is  significant,  however,  that  out  of  fourteen  observers  who 
expressed  a  preference  for  one  of  the  last  four  positions,  eleven  preferred 
position  5,  two  preferred  position  8,  and  one  was  doubtful  regarding  5  or  8. 
This  apparently  gives  a  favorable  vote  to  the  position  which  involves  bend¬ 
ing  to  the  left  and  reading  material  from  bottom  to  top. 

Observations  were  also  taken  by  five  persons,  in  the  library,  to  ascertain 
which  way  the  head  and  body  are  bent  when  reading  book  titles  in  the 
stacks.  In  187  cases  observed,  29  per  cent,  bent  voluntarily  to  the  right, 
while  71  per  cent,  bent  voluntarily  to  the  left.  Obviously  these  results  should 
be  suitably  qualified  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  they  were  not  obtained  under 
experimental  conditions.  Such  factors  as  differences  in  illumination,  posi¬ 
tion  of  books  as  regards  the  aisles,  just  previous  position  of  the  observer, 
height  of  books  from  floor  and  similar  circumstances,  clues  to  which  could 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


67 


very  likely  be  obtained  in  individual  reports,  were  not  taken  into  account. 
The  figures  speak  for  themselves  only  in  the  mass.  And  yet,  of  course, 
when  so  taken  they  are  very  good  indicators  of  a  possible  conclusion. 

Results:  As  far  as  our  own  statistical  records  go,  the  time 
values  and  also  the  number  of  times  which  indicated  a  faster  read¬ 
ing  for  one  or  the  other  direction  show  no  general  significant 
features.  The  reading  times  indicate  the  least  variation  when 
comparisons  are  made  in  the  values  obtained  in  reading  upwards 
with  those  obtained  in  reading  downward.  There  is,  of  course, 
large  individual  variation  with  the  observers.  The  only  figures 
that  seem  to  have  any  relevancy  are  the  total  times  that  the 
series  was  read  faster  in  one  direction  than  in  the  other,  and 
there,  only  as  regards  that  phase  of  the  problem  which  took  into 
account  the  height  of  the  shelf  from  the  floor  and  the  direction 
from  which  the  shelf  was  approached.  When  the  shelf  is  above 
the  level  of  the  eyes  the  bottom  to  top  direction  is  most  favorable, 
whether  it  is  approached  from  the  right  or  the  left,  although 
slightly  more  so  when  approached  from  the  right.  In  69  per  cent, 
of  the  cases  the  times  were  faster  from  bottom  to  top  and  in  31 
per  cent,  they  were  faster  in  the  reverse  direction.  When  these 
percentages  are  factored  into  values  which  signify  the  direction 
from  which  the  shelf  was  approached,  we  find  that  the  value  for 
the  approach  from  the  observer’s  right  reaches  as  high  as  77 
per  cent.,  whereas  that  for  the  approach  from  the  observer’s  left 
decreases  to  59  per  cent.  At  the  level  of  the  eyes  there  seems 
to  be  no  appreciable  difference  in  time  values  or  in  the  number  of 
times  either  direction  is  read  faster.  This  is  markedly  true  in  the 
series  in  which  the  head  was  fixed.  In  the  series  in  which  the 
shelf  was  placed  below  the  level  of  the  eyes,  there  is  a  slight 
preference  for  the  top-to-bottom  direction  as  expressed  in  the 
number  of  times  this  direction  was  read  faster.  The  per¬ 
centages  are:  .57  for  the  top-to-bottom  and  .43  for  the  reverse 
direction.  When  these  values  are  factored  into  figures  which 
indicate  the  direction  of  approach,  they  increase  so  that  the  top- 
to-bottom  direction  is  .64  when  approached  from  the  right  and 
.49  when  approached  from  the  left.  The  writers,  however,  wish 


68 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


to  emphasize  the  fact  that  there  is  so  slight  and  sometimes  so 
inconsistent  a  difference  in  the  actual  time  values  for  reading 
in  one  or  the  other  direction,  that  comparatively  little  evidence 
in  favor  of  printing  titles  uniformly  either  from  bottom  to  top 
or  from  top  to  bottom  is  forthcoming  from  the  mere  statistical 
account  of  our  investigations  and  more  stress  is  to  be  placed  on 
the  observers’  comments.  Stated  in  other  words,  as  a  matter 
of  sheer  efficiency  gauged  in  the  time  actually  spent  reading  the 
titles,  we  find  no  noteworthy  or  uniform  difference. 

Something  must  be  said,  nevertheless,  both  for  the  mental  at¬ 
titude  of  the  reader  as  regards  his  reaction  to  the  confusion 
which  now  obtains  respecting  the  printers’  and  publishers’  prac¬ 
tice  and  for  the  time  that  may  actually  be  lost  before  the  reading 
of  the  title  is  begun.  This  latter  value  was,  of  course,  omitted 
entirely  from  our  calculations.  It  is  a  value  hard  to  obtain,  and 
compares  with  the  well-known  “fore-period”  of  the  reaction¬ 
time  experiments. 

The  introspective  comments  in  almost  every  case  diclose  prom¬ 
inent  kinaesthetic  sensations  localized  about  the  head  and  neck 
and  occasionally  in  some  of  the  larger  trunk  muscles.  These 
appear  before  the  reading  is  begun  and  last  through  the  reading 
period.  Frequently  they  are  affectively  colored,  and  unpleasantly 
so  before  a  sudden  change  of  position,  e.g.,  when  the  direction 
of  reading  is  opposite  to  that  anticipated.  To  quote: 

“Slight  tendency  to  tilt  head  according  to  reading  of  card.  Ten¬ 
dency  to  read  from  bottom  to  top  of  card.  Cards  blurred  more 
or  less  by  fixed  position — eyes  used  to  slight  tilting  of  head  to  ease 
strain  of  reading.” 

“Pleasantly  colored  sensations  while  waiting  for  opening  of 
shutter — desire  to  begin  quickly.  Unpleasant  emotion  when  top 
of  sheet  is  at  the  right,  pleasant  when  at  left  (bottom  to  top).” 

“When  the  cards  were  perceived  to  read  bottom  to  top,  there 
was  a  kinaesthetic  sensation  in  the  neck  resulting  from  turning 
the  head  to  the  left  side.” 

“When  cards  were  shown  there  was  an  involuntary  kinaes¬ 
thetic  twitch  in  the  muscles  of  the  eyes  toward  the  upper 
right-hand  corner  in  all  cases.” 

“When  the  cards  were  exposed  there  was  a  kinaesthetic  sen- 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


69 


sation  of  movement  of  my  eyes  to  the  lower  left-hand  corner  of 
the  cards.  If  I  perceived  that  this  was  the  point  at  which  it  was 
easiest  to  begin  reading  (if  the  lines  ran  upward)  I  began  read¬ 
ing  at  once  without  difficulty.  In  case  they  ran  downward,  how¬ 
ever,  it  was  necessary  to  focus  my  eyes  at  the  upper  right-hand 
Corner.” 

It  is  clearly  seen  that  the  mental  accompaniments  of  the  read¬ 
ing  must  be  taken  into  account.  They  parallel  the  actual  reading 
in  many  cases  without  disturbing  the  reading  time.  In  most 
cases,  however,  there  are  kinaesthetic  adjustments  made  in  an¬ 
ticipation  of  the  reading  and  if  these  are  later  to  be  altered  an 
unpleasant  affection  results  which  seldom  disturbs  the  reading. 
It  is  barely  possible  that  if  the  experiments  were  to  be  continued 
and  the  time  accurately  measured  from  the  opening  of  the  shutter 
to  the  beginning  of  the  reading,  especially  if  the  reading  were 
done  through  an  electrically  controlled  lip-key  or  the  Dunlap 
voice-key,  significant  time  values  would  result  for  the  two  direc¬ 
tions. 


Questionary  Series 

While  the  investigation  was  proceeding,  some  92  answers  to 
questionnaires  were  received,  about  one-half  of  this  number  from 
colleagues  on  the  faculty  of  the  University,  and  the  other  half 
from  psychologists  selected  from  the  American  Psychological 
Association.  A  copy  of  this  questionnaire  follows. 

Dear  Sir : 

Librarians  and  others  are  just  now  discussing  the  problem  of  printing  titles 
lengthwise  on  the  backs  of  periodicals  and  thin  books.  Some  maintain  that 
the  more  readable  direction  is  from  top  to  bottom ;  others  take  the  opposite 
view.  The  question  has  been  referred  to  us  for  experimentation  and  the 
investigation  is  now  under  way. 

In  connection  with  the  experimental  results  that  we  are  obtaining,  it  is  of 
interest  to  us  to  learn  the  personal  opinions  of  those  who  are  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  such  material.  For  this  reason  we  should  very  much  like  an 
expression  of  your  reaction  to  the  following  statements: 

(1)  When  publications  of  this  sort  are  in  position  on  a  book-shelf  among 
other  miscellaneous  books,  I  find  that  I  am  inclined  to  read  the  title  more 
readily  when  printed  from  j  top  to  bottom 

\  bottom  to  top 

(2)  There  are  circumstances,  however,  which  may  modify  this  inclina¬ 
tion  ;  these  are : 


70 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


(3)  When  inscribing  titles  along  the  backbone  of  reprints  inserted  ia 

covers,  I  usually  write  them  from  f  top  to  bottom 

\  bottom  to  top 

(4)  I  am  normally  (  right-handed 

(  left-handed 

A  number  of  affiliated  questions  are  frequently  raised  in  this  connection. 
Among  them  are:  (a)  Is  the  head  generally  inclined  more  readily  to  one 
side  than  the  other  or  are  there  frequent  variations?  (b)  Does  the  predis¬ 
position  to  read  lines  from  left  to  right  and  from  top  to  bottom  affect  the 
question  raised?  If  you  care  to  discuss  these  questions  or  related  questions 
on  the  back  of  this  sheet  in  addition  to  your  answers  to  previous  questions,, 
we  should  be  glad  to  hear  from  you. 

Thanking  you  for  your  cooperation,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)  Christian  A.  Ruckmick. 

When  the  votes  are  counted  without  reservations  we  find  48 
in  favor  of  reading  from  bottom  to  top  and  34  in  favor  of  the 
reverse  direction.  Fifty-three  were  in  favor  of  writing  the  titles 
on  the  backbones  of  monographs  from  bottom  to  top,  and  30 
in  the  reverse  direction.  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  while  some  indicate  a  preference  in  reading  from  top 
to  bottom  they  state  in  reply  to  the  third  question  that  they 
write  in  the  titles  in  the  reverse  direction.  On  the  other  hand,, 
not  a  single  case  appears  in  which  the  bottom-to-top  method  of 
reading  is  combined  with  the  habit  of  writing  titles  from  top  to 
bottom. 

If  space  permitted  it  would  be  instructive  to  publish  all  of  the 
individual  comments  made  in  reply  to  questionnaires.  Some 
have  already  been  summarized  in  our  introduction  to  the  prob¬ 
lem.  There  seems  to  be  without  question  an  individual  difference 
in  the  matter,  with  the  majority  of  habits  formed  in  favor  of 
tilting  the  head  to  the  left,  making  the  bottom-to-top  reading 
probably  the  more  agreeable  one.  At  best  many  consider  the 
practice  a  necessary  evil  and,  as  one  well-known  psychologist 
has  it,  one  would  “vastly  prefer  any  kind  of  makeshift  in  the 
way  of  horizontal  abbreviation  which  would  obviate  the  necessity 
of  straining  one’s  eyes  to  the  required  position  in  order  to  read 
the  vertical  type.” 

Summary  and  Conclusion:  It  will  be  seen  from  our  studies 
that,  so  far  as  the  rapidity  of  reading  is  concerned,  there  seems 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


7 1 


to  be  no  pronounced  difference  in  favor  of  one  direction  or  the 
other.  With  certain  factors  added,  such  as  height  of  shelf,  posi¬ 
tion  of  the  book  to  the  right  or  to  the  left  of  the  observer,  in¬ 
dividual  habits,  and  above  all,  individual  preferences,  especially 
as  these  are  emphasized  in  our  verbal  reports,  then  there  appears 
a  significant  margin  of  choice  in  favor  of  the  bottom-to-top 
direction.  Further  experiments  investigating  the  period  just 
before  reading  and  possibly  also  the  period  after  reading  should 
be  planned  and  introspections  recorded. 

Replies  to  the  Questionary 

Since  the  comments,  theories,  and  explanations  that  were  re¬ 
turned  with  the  printed  questionnaires  would  be  lost  in  any 
statistical  treatment  of  the  results  obtained,  it  is  better  to  let  them 
tell  their  own  story  without  modification.  Accordingly  there  is 
appended  a  series  of  such  discussions  selected  from  the  entire 
set  of  returns.  Only  those  have  been  omitted  whose  statement 
of  the  point  is  found  in  some  other  quotation  and  is  usually 
therein  better  expressed.  Many  of  the  statements  come  from 
prominent  psychologists  and  other  widely  known  men  of  science; 
but  because  it  is  doubtful  whether  we  could  properly  attach  their 
signatures  to  material  thus  obtained,  we  are  presenting  them  only 
on  their  intrinsic  merits. 

“I  try  to  have  the  legend  on  the  ‘backbone’  of  every  publication  that  is  not 
wide  enough  to  print  across  printed  to  read  from  top  to  bottom.  As  my  func¬ 
tion  is  more  that  of  the  maker  of  the  periodical  than  of  the  user  or  the 
librarian,  I  am  interested  in  having  all  such  arrangements  meet  the  con¬ 
venience  of  the  persons  who  use  them. 

The  best  summary  of  the  argument  for  top-to-bottom  readings  is  found 
in  H.  P.  Ward’s  “American  College  Catalog,”  page  79: 

“Although  some  college  catalogs  are  made  with  the  backbone  title  reading 
from  bottom  to  top,  many  are  properly  printed  with  the  title  reading  from 
top  to  bottom.  The  reason  for  this  form  is  that  when  the  catalog  is  laid 
flat  on  a  table  or  desk,  front  side  up,  and  other  catalogs  are  placed  on  top 
of  it,  it  is  possible  to  read  the  backbone  title  without  taking  it  out  of  the 
pile.  The  best  explanation  of  this  matter  would  be  a  glance  at  a  pile  of 
old  magazines.  It  would  be  far  better  if  the  few  catalogs  whose  backbone 
titles  read  from  bottom  to  top  could  be  treated  as  the  great  majority  are, 
with  the  backbone  title  reading  top  to  bottom,  for  the  sake  of  uniformity  of 
appearance  in  the  Exchange  Catalog  Shelves  of  hundreds  of  institutions  and 
libraries.  The  librarian  customarily  passes  along  a  shelf  from  left  to  right, 
reading  from  top  to  bottom.  He  is  entitled  to  some  consideration. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  question  of  uniformity  is  the  important  one  here.” 


72 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


“When  I  started  in  to  print  the  Review  I  was  perfectly  shocked  to  find 
that  the  printer  had  printed  the  title  on  the  back  of  the  magazine  from  bot¬ 
tom  to  top.  It  looked  all  wrong  to  me  and  yet  the  printer  declared  that 
that  was  the  usual  custom.  I  told  the  usual  custom  to  be  hanged;  the  Review 
was  going  to  suit  my  aesthetic  taste,  and  so  it  follows  it  from  top  to  bot¬ 
tom.” 

“(a)  I  find  I  incline  my  head  more  readily  to  the  left  than  to  the  right, 
(b)  Predisposition  to  read  from  left  to  right  favors  printing  titles  from  the 
top  toward  the  bottom  because  when  the  book  is  laid  flat  on  the  table  or 
book-shelf  with  the  front  cover  up,  the  printing  on  the  back  is  then  right- 
side  up  and  reads  from  left  to  right.  Perhaps  the  disposition  to  read  from 
top  to  bottom  also  favors  the  printing  of  the  title  in  this  way. 

In  spite  of  the  considerations  mentioned  in  (b),  I  prefer  the  reading  from 
bottom  to  top.  In  this  connection,  it  may  be  worth  while  pointing  out  that 
this  is  the  practice  of  the  government  printing  office — at  least  it  is  so  in 
such  bulletins  as  fall  under  my  eye  as  I  write  this.” 

“I  return  herewith  your  outline  and  in  this  connection  wish  to  say  that  I 
have  gone  over  my  private  library  including  many  thousand  pamphlets  and 
as  nearly  as  one  can  determine  by  a  rapid  examination  the  following  is  true 
of  the  publications  which  have  printed  labels  on  the  backbone.  Older 
journals  printed  in  America  have  the  label  running  from  bottom  to  top, 
where  the  same  periodical  in  the  last  dozen  years  has  changed  its  habit. 
The  same  is  true  of  government  publications  issued  in  the  Philippines. 
However,  those  printed  in  Washington,  namely  the  Geological  Survey  and 
the  United  States  National  Museum,  have  consistently  followed  the  rule  of 
beginning  the  line  at  the  bottom  and  printing  towards  the  top.  All  of  the 
English  periodicals  to  which  I  referred  have  the  titles  on  the  backbone 
started  at  the  bottom  and  reading  towards  the  top.  All  recent  French  (one 
exception),  German  (one  exception),  Italian  and  Russian  publications  make 
the  title  read  from  the  bottom  towards  the  top.  In  old  German  publications 
this  seems  to  have  been  the  exceptional  method  and  of  the  few  I  had  almost 
all  had  the  title  printed  in  the  opposite  direction.” 

“Recent  scientific  publications  of  medical  character  printed  in  this  country 
have  the  backbone  title  reading  from  the  top  towards  the  bottom.” 

“I  found  on  attempting  to  study  the  shelves,  I  approached  them  always  in 
such  a  way  as  to  stand  at  the  right  and  then  it  was  natural  to  read  from 
the  bottom  towards  the  top  following  direction  from  left  to  right.  When 
I  tried  to  stand  at  the  left  in  which  it  was  possible  to  read  easily  from  the 
top  to  the  bottom,  it  required  considerable  effort  to  push  my  head  into  the 
proper  position  and  it  was  not  natural  to  handle  the  books  because  in  sepa¬ 
rating  them  one  always  looked  at  the  back  of  the  pamphlet,  whereas  in 
approaching  from  the  right  one  could  pull  the  books  apart  and  the  eye  fell 
naturally  on  the  front  of  the  pamphlet.  It  seemed  to  me  that  there  was  not 
any  difficulty  in  inclining  the  head  towards  one  side  rather  than  towards  the 
other.  I  am  not  sure  that  habit  is  the  factor  involved  but  my  experiment 
lead  to  the  distinct  feeling  that  one  way  was  natural  and  the  other  not.” 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


73 


“In  a  filing  drawer  where  pamphlets  are  grouped  back  up,  it  is  very  in¬ 
convenient  to  have  the  title  read  from  top  to  bottom.  Come  over  to  see  my 
library  some  day.” 

“I  believe  this  habit  of  reading  from  below  upwards  may  be  connected 
with  that  of  writing  with  the  paper  tipped  upward  at  the  right.  It  would 
be  very  awkward  to  write  with  paper  tipped  downward  at  the  right;  that 
would  demand  a  cramped  inward  movement  of  arm,  whereas  inclining  paper 
upward  at  right  gives  a  free  outward  movement  of  arm.” 

“In  reading  the  titles  of  volumes  on  shelves  printed  lengthwise  of  the 
volume  I  always  stand  on  the  left  side  of  the  volume  and  the  head  is  in¬ 
clined  to  the  right  side.  I  find  it  difficult  to  stand  on  the  right  side  and  to 
incline  the  head  to  the  left.  All  geological  publications  of  United  States 
and  Canada,  British  colonies  and  nearly  all  British  print  from  bottom  to  top. 
Perhaps  this  may  be  reason  for  my  preference.” 

“It  would  be  inconvenient  to  write  from  bottom  to  top  as  I  hold  book 
in  left  hand  and  it  requires  less  energy  to  turn  it  into  position  to  write 
bottom-top  than  top-bottom.” 

“The  ‘psychology’  of  it  with  me  appears  to  be  that  when  a  lot  of  such 
things  are  shelved  in  alphabetical  order  by  author  (or  title)  I  seem  to  be 
reading  them  down  the  pile, — much  as  I  would  continue  the  alphabet  down 
onto  another  shelf ;  so  they  resemble  a  series  of  alphabetical  titles  on  a 
printed  paper  which  I  read  from  top  to  bottom  far  more  readily  than  I 
should  if  they  began  at  the  bottom  with  A  and  wound  up  with  Z  on  the  top 
line.” 

“All  narrow  columns  such  as  the  headings  to  columns  in  tables  read  from 
top  to  bottom.  This  holds  true  even  though  the  headings  are  spelled  out  by 
single  letters.  The  habit  is  thus  formed  of  reading  downwards.  This  may 
seem  inconsistent  with  the  common  practice  of  placing  tables  and  cuts  that 
run  lengthwise  of  the  page  so  they  read  from  the  bottom  as  the  left  hand 
side  of  the  page.  But  to  read  such  tables  we  must  turn  the  book,  and  the 
most  natural  method  is  to  turn  it  ‘clock-wise.’  ” 

“My  head  inclines  more  readily  to  the  left.  I  attribute  this  to  the  fact 
that  I  always  have  the  light  come  over  my  left  shoulder,  and  hence  usually 
read  with  head  inclined  a  little  to  the  left.  Likewise,  right-handed  people 
write  with  heads  bent  to  the  left.” 

“I  find  also  that  I  have  had  to  put  labels  on  a  very  considerable  number  of 
small  slim  botles  and  in  every  case  it  reads  from  bottom  to  top.  I  naturally 
pick  the  bottle  up  in  my  right  hand  by  the  top  and  swing  the  bottom  to  the 
left,  so  the  bottom  to  top  label  is  easily  read.  I  have  counted  20  booklets 
and  pamphlets  here  which  have  titles  lengthwise  on  the  back — all  as  prepared 
by  the  printer.  Eight  have  titles  bottom  to  top  and  12  top  to  bottom.  To 
my  mind  there  is  little  difference  after  we  get  used  to  either,  but  uni¬ 
formity  is  desirable.” 

“Titles  of  books  are  usually  printed  at  the  top,  often  back  of  the  volume. 


74 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


The  beginning  of  the  lengthwise  title  should  be  near  the  same  line  as  the 
cross-wise  title.” 

“In  searching  for  books  on  a  shelf,  using  titles,  a  man  usually  works  from 
left  to  right,  and  so  likes  to  catch  the  clue  word  of  a  ‘back-bone’  title  on 
the  same  level  as  other  titles,  without  fumbling  lower  down.” 

“In  my  own  case,  I  am  quite  positive  in  this  matter^  Even  in  so  small  a 
matter  as  inserting  a  word  I  write  it  tilted  ' \  .  When  going  down  a  shelf 
of  books  you  naturally  follow,  instead  of  backing  along,  as  you  cannot  do 
when  you  read  from  the  bottom  up.” 

“Personally  I  have  a  slight  preference  to  turn  my  head  to  the  left  in 
looking  at  such  titles  which  would  mean  printing  from  bottom  to  top.  I 
arrange  MSS.  in  folders  on  that  principle.  I  am  right-handed.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  am  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  all  such  titles  should  be  printed  from 
top  to  bottom  for  the  following  reason.  Unbound  magazines  are  more 
frequently  laid  flat  than  on  edge.  It  is  absurd  to  lay  the  magazine  face 

down ;  and  it  looks  equally  foolish  to  see  the  title  upside  down  on  the  back. 

The  edge  titles  of  unbound  magazines  should  therefore  be  printed  from  top 
to  bottom.  Why  have  one  rule  for  magazines,  another  for  books?  A  thin 
book  is  often  laid  flat  and  it  is  much  simpler  to  have  the  title  page  upper¬ 
most  and  the  back  title  upright.  On  the  ground  of  simplicity  I  should 
recommend  very  urgently  that  one  uniform  rule  be  adopted,  namely,  top  to 
bottom.” 

“The  only  justification,  in  my  opinion,  for  the  bottom  to  top  method  of 
printing  titles  is  the  stacking  of  books  and  reprints  horizontally,  rather  than 
vertically,  and  even  this  is  doubtful  value.  For,  when  books  are  kept 

horizontal,  the  book  to  be  consulted  must  be  turned  over  through  an  angle 

of  90°  before  the  title  page  is  readable.” 

“A  right-handed  person  commonly  writes  with  the  lines  sloping  from 
lower  left  to  upper  right  of  the  visual  field  to  accommodate  his  forearm 
movements.  Never  the  opposite  slope  as  far  as  I  have  observed.  This  is 
reversed  for  left-handed  persons.  This  gives  a  considerably  greater  famil¬ 
iarity  to  upward  reading  lines  to  the  majority  of  persons.  My  practice  is, 
wherever  I  am  not  otherwise  constrained  by  positions  on  a  ladder  or  other 
considerations,  to  turn  pages  with  the  right  hand  and  hold  a  book  with  the 
left.  This  naturally  leads  to  taking  a  book  from  the  shelves  with  the  left 
hand.  As  a  matter  of  economy  of  effect  this  is  worth  encouraging  by  upward 
reading  titles.  The  main  point  is  uniformity.  We  can  readily  adapt  our¬ 
selves  to  either  way  of  printing.  Lack  of  uniformity  is  disturbing  and 
fatiguing.” 

“If  I  incline,  not  only  in  order  to  read,  but  read  and  handle  at  the  same 
time,  I  incline  to  the  left  because  I  handle  with  the  skillful  right  and  sup¬ 
port  the  body  with  the  unskilled  left.  The  conditions  are  so  complex,  that 
it  is  of  little  average  advantage  to  use  one  method  of  writing  titles  rather 
than  the  other.  We  might  as  well  decide  it  by  tossing  up  a  coin.  But  it  is 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


75 


of  the  greatest  advantage  to  have  all  titles  written  the  same  way.  Maybe 
one  style  is  already  preponderant.  Then  that  should  be  generally  adopted.” 

“If  a  book  is  lying  before  you,  right  side  up,  opening  at  right,  a  title  printed 
lengthwise  on  back  can  be  read  by  moving  head  and  tipping  to  left,  with  a 
slight  raising  of  the  back  of  book,  if  title  is  printed  from  bottom  to  top. 
But  if  printed  from  top  to  bottom,  greater  movements  (changes  of  position) 
are  required.  This  seems  to  me  to  be  the  only  fact  indicating  which  is  the 
^normal’  method  of  printing.  Either  method  would  be  satisfactory,  if  made 
universal.  One  would  as  easily  form  the  habit  of  looking  one  way  as  the 
other  along  the  shelf.  I  prefer,  however  the  ‘normal’  arrangement  of  read¬ 
ing  from  bottom  to  top.” 

“If  I  were  sitting  in  front  of  a  bookcase  at  some  distance  I  would  prefer 
that  the  titles  be  printed  from  top  to  bottom.  If  I  were  in  front  of  a  book¬ 
case  and  passing  from  right  to  left,  I  would  prefer  that  the  titles  be  printed 
from  bottom  to  top.  If  I  were  to  pass  from  left  to  right  I  would  prefer 
that  the  titles  be  printed  from  top  to  bottom.  I  would  naturally  pass  from 
right  to  left.  If  I  were  sorting  through  a  pile  of  reprints  placed  in  front 
of  me,  top  cover  up,  I  would  prefer  that  the  titles  be  printed  from  bottom 
to  top.” 

“In  reply  to  your  inquiries  of  February  12th,  I  write  to  say  that  the 
practice  to  which  you  refer  always  fills  me  with  suppressed  rage,  for  unless 
the  book  concerned  happens  to  be  at  the  level  of  my  eyes,  I  find  myself 
attempting  to  stand  on  my  head  in  order  to  compass  the  necessary  reading. 
My  impression  has  been  that  I  find  this  process  less  distressing  when  the  title 
is  entered  from  top  to  bottom  than  when  in  the  reverse  form ;  but  either 
practice  has  always  seemed  to  me  an  invention  of  the  Evil  One.  I  vastly 
prefer  any  kind  of  makeshift  in  the  way  of  horizontal  abbreviation  which 
will  obviate  the  necessity  of  straining  one’s  eyes  to  the  required  position  in 
order  to  read  the  vertical  type.  Although  I  have  never  made  careful  experi¬ 
mental  study  of  the  matter,  my  general  impression  has  been  that  if  books 
were  on  shelves  below  the  level  of  my  waist,  I  would  prefer  to  have  the 
titles  run  from  the  bottom  up.  With  the  shelving  in  my  own  library  this 
occurs  less  frequently  than  the  converse  way  with  the  books  above  my  waist 
and  perhaps  explains  my  supposed  preference  for  the  title  running  from  the 
top  downward.” 

“My  head  inclines  more  easily  and  automatically  toward  the  left.  I  read 
more  comfortably  with  a  left-hand  inclination.  The  usual  flat  position  of  a 
book  held  in  front  of  the  face,  title  page  up,  brings  the  reading  on  the  back 
fcom  bottom  to  top.” 

“I  slightly  prefer  inclination  of  the  head  to  the  left,  but  I  am  inclined 
on  the  other  hand  to  approach  a  book  shelf  from  the  left  and  this  ne¬ 
cessitates  the  reading  of  titles  from  top  to  bottom.  Undoubtedly,  the  habit 
of  reading  from  left  to  right  affects  the  situation.  I  recently  noted  that 
when  titles  of  books  are  printed  lengthwise  of  a  page,  the  orientation  differs. 
There  should  certainly  be  uniformity  of  practice  in  this  connection.  I  pre- 


76 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


fer  to  have  the  lines  begin  at  the  bottom  of  the  volume  extending  thus  from 
bottom  to  top.  Evidently  the  conditions  which  influence  me  in  this  case  are 
somewhat  different  from  those  in  the  case  of  the  title  on  book  or  volume. 
If  instead  of  reading  titles  on  a  book  shelf,  I  lift  a  volume  from  the  table 
to  read  lengthwise  title,  I  very  much  prefer  to  read  from  bottom  to  top.” 

“In  reply  to  your  questionnaire  with  regard  to  printed  titles  on  the  backs 
of  books  and  periodicals  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  I  find  on  examining  my 
preferences  that  I  prefer  a  title  that  reads  from  the  bottom  to  the  top.  I 
find  that  my  method  of  approaching  the  bookcase  is  such  that  I  naturally 
tip  my  head  toward  my  own  left  hand  and  stand  in  such  a  position  that  I 
read  up  rather  than  otherwise.  I  did  not  realize  that  I  had  the  preference  as 
fully  as  I  find  that  I  have.  I  am  quite  right-handed  and  do  not  know  of 
any  general  considerations  that  would  have  prompted  the  development  of 
this  habit.  I  call  your  attention  to  one  fact,  well  known  to  oculists;  there 
is  a  tendency  for  the  head  to  be  bent  so  as  to  bring  the  plane  of  normal 
fixation  of  the  two  eyes  into  a  position  where  there  will  be  the  least  muscular 
strain  on  the  eyes.  The  neck  muscles  in  this  way  coordinate  in  making  eye 
adjustment.” 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  SOUND  LOCALIZATION1 


By  C.  A.  Ruckmick 

It  is  not  necessary  to  give  the  historical  background  of  the  prob¬ 
lem  since  that  has  already  been  given  in  several  recent  studies.2 
It  should  be  said,  however,  that  new  interest  was  aroused  con¬ 
cerning  the  investigation  of  sound  localization  because  of  very 
urgent  questions  that  arose  in  connection  with  the  war,  questions 
which  indeed  made  both  the  physicists  and  the  psychologists 
realize  the  dearth  of  material  on  the  subject.  For  example, 
practically  nothing  of  scientific  value  had  been  done  in  either 
of  these  sciences  with  the  problem  of  sound  localization  through 
mediums  other  than  air.  The  need  for  accurate  and  rapid  detec¬ 
tion  of  sapping  activities  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  and  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  localizing  with  equal  precision  and  speed  the  presence  of 
enemy  submarines  made  it  clear  that  we  should  know  facts  con¬ 
cerning  the  localization  of  sound  through  the  solid  earth  and 
through  water,  in  addition  to  more  detailed  information  con¬ 
cerning  the  localization  of  aeroplanes  in  flight.  Accordingly, 
both  physical  and  psychological  scientific  societies  undertook, 
through  specially  appointed  committees  to  make  further  specific 
investigations  into  these  matters.3 

1  These  experiments  were  undertaken  by  a  group  of  students  doing  ad¬ 
vanced  or  graduate  work  in  the  Department.  The  experimenters  who  were 
responsible  for  various  sections  are :  Miss  Harriet  Anderson,  Miss  Hilda  Kohl, 
Miss  Anna  Polkowski,  and  Mr.  A.  W.  Gross.  To  these  and  to  the  many 
observers,  the  compiler  of  the  results  wishes  here  to  give  suitable  recog¬ 
nition. 

2  One  of  the  best  summaries  of  the  literature  is  given  in  Klemm,  O.,  Un- 
tersuchungen  iiber  die  Lokalisation  von  Schallreizen,  Arch.  f.  d.  gesam. 
Psychol.,  1918,  xxxviii,  71-114. 

3  Besides  cooperation  with  the  physicists,  through  consultations  and  the 
lending  of  apparatus,  the  author  undertook  to  contribute  his  share  of  the 
work  of  the  Committee  on  Audition,  appointed  by  the  American  Psycho¬ 
logical  Association,  by  supervising  three  or  four  pieces  of  research  in  this 
field. 


78 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


I 

Without  going  into  the  controversy  regarding  the  question  of 
the  binaural  ratio,  we  attempted  to  indicate  the  influence  of 
relative  intensity  in  the  localization  of  sound  under  conditions 
that  should  guard  against  certain  psychological  errors  of  which 
experimental  research  on  the  part  of  physicists  is  not  always  free. 
In  particular  we  attempted  to  duplicate,  in  principle  at  least,  the 
work  of  Myers  and  Wilson,4  two  investigators  who  seem  not 
sufficiently  to  have  considered  errors  of  this  sort.5 

Apparatus :  We  used  two  quiet  rooms  in  the  psychological 
laboratory,  one  of  them  a  large  dark  room  (Fig.  I).  In  the 
outer  room,  a  large  wooden  box  enclosed  a  Stern  variator  (No.  2, 
150  vd.  to  300  vd.  Opposite  the  lip  of  the  instrument  a  large 
eight-inch  tin  funnel  was  inserted,  with  its  outer  edge  bound  by 
rubber  and  directed  towards  the  variator.  Its  narrow  orifice 
was  extended  by  means  of  rubber  tubing  54 /r  in  diameter  to  the 
operating  table  in  the  inner  dark  room.  The  Stern  variator  was 
set  at  three  different  pitches  in  the  course  of  the  experiment, 
193  vd.,  200  vd.,  and  217.5  vd.  Rubber  tubing  from  the  com¬ 
pressed  air  service  piped  into  the  building  conducted  air  through 
a  reducing  valve  to  the  intake  of  the  Stern  variator.  The  inside 
of  the  box  was  thoroughly  stuffed  with  cotton  waste  and  the 
outside  of  the  box  was  wrapped  with  deadening  material  made  of 
seaweed.  All  openings  between  the  two  rooms  were  tightly 
sealed,  and  several  observations  were  made  to  determine  whether 
any  sound  could  be  heard  in  the  inner  room  when  the  valves 
were  closed  and  the  Stern  variator  was  operating.  The  large 
rubber  tubing  passed  through  a  carefully  packed  opening  in  the 
wall  between  the  two  rooms  to  two  sliding  valves.  Before 
coming  to  these  valves  the  tube  bifucated  through  a  glass  Y. 
The  sliding  valves  were  so  arranged  that  the  full  diameter  of  the 

4  Myers,  C.  S.,  and  Wilson,  H.  A.,  The  influence  of  binaural  phase  dif¬ 
ferences  on  the  localization  of  sound,  Brit.  J.  of  Psychol.,  1908,  ii,  363-385. 

5  The  author  would  like  to  see  some  of  the  experiments  on  the  intra¬ 
cranial  localization  of  sound  repeated  under  rigid  conditions.  It  seems  re¬ 
markable,  for  example,  that  (in  our  experiments)  no  localization  was  re¬ 
ported,  as  referring  to  either  ear,  or  to  any  position  “in  the  heady 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


79 


tube  was  maintained  but  could  be  reduced  by  the  experimenter. 
Since  the  question  arose  in  the  preliminary  series  whether  a  valve 
of  this  sort  might  not,  when  partly  closed,  produce  eddies  in  the 
current  of  air,  later  in  the  main  series  we  used  glass  tubes  of 
nine  different  diameters,  .15,  .2,  .4,  .42,  .45,  .6,  .65,  .9,  and 
1. 1  cm.  These  were  always  used  in  pairs,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
Y.  From  this  point  on  a  pair  of  tubes  was  continued  for 
about  10'  and  ended  each  in  a  small  2"  tin  funnel,  the  outer  edge 
of  which  was  bound  in  rubber.  The  funnel  on  each  side  was 
held  in  a  standard  opposite  the  ear  of  the  observer,  and  the  ob¬ 
server’s  head  was  fixed  in  a  head-rest. 

Procedure:  It  must  be  understood,  of  course,  that  none  of 
the  observers  ever  knew,  in  the  course  of  the  experiment,  the  ar¬ 
rangement  of  the  apparatus  or  the  nature  of  the  problem.  The  ob¬ 
server  was  led  blindfolded  into  the  dark  room  and  great  care  was 


8o 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


exercised  by  the  experimenter  that,  as  he  sat  down  and  inserted 
his  head  in  the  head-rest,  his  head  should  not  touch  either  fun¬ 
nel.  The  four  observers  who  took  part  in  the  experiment  never 
realized  that  two  separate  sounds  were  coming  to  their  ears,  and, 
in  fact,  when  subsequently  told  of  the  conditions,  they  could 
hardly  be  persuaded  to  believe  the  situation  to  be  as  described. 

When  the  observer  had  been  seated  he  was  instructed  to  visual¬ 
ize  a  sphere  with  his  head  at  the  center  and  the  zero  point  directly 
in  front,  and  to  keep  clearly  in  mind  the  quadrants  to  the  left, 
right,  above,  and  below.  He  was  further  instructed  that  a  sound 
would  be  produced  in  the  room  and  that  he  was  to  localize  this 
sound  in  terms  of  the  imaginary  sphere  and  by  such  designations 
in  the  sphere  as  would  enable  the  experimenter  to  record  the 
results.  In  some  cases  these  symbols  were  adjusted  to  the  prefer¬ 
ences  of  the  observer.  He  was  also  required  to  estimate  the  dis¬ 
tance  that  the  sound  was  away  from  his  head. 

The  reports  of  the  Obs.  were  taken  down  by  the  experimenter 
on  a  mimeographed  blank  which  designated  the  number  of  the 
trial;  date;  observer;  position  left,  right,  above  and  below;  in¬ 
tensity;  distance;  and  “remarks.”  There  were  over  650  trials 
recorded  and  results  tabulated.  In  the  preliminary  series,  nine 
positions  of  the  valve  were  marked  on  each  side,  and  a  haphazard 
series  was  arranged  in  advance  to  include  the  various  combina¬ 
tions  of  these  positions.  The  same  plan  was  followed  in  the  main 
series,  in  which  the  glass  tubes  were  used  in  place  of  the  valves. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  since  the  length  of  the  tube  on  each  side 
was  kept  precisely  the  same,  and  since  the  only  change  introduced 
was  a  change  in  the  opening  through  which  the  sound  waves 
passed,  there  could  be  no  modification  of  the  wave  save  ampli¬ 
tude,  a  modification  calculated  to  produce  a  difference  of  intensity 
for  the  two  ears.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  second  part  of 
the  investigation  in  which  eddies  were  avoided. 

The  experiments  were  conducted  during  the  academic  year 
of  1917-1918  and  during  the  summer  session  of  1918,  in  the 
Psychological  Laboratory  at  the  University  of  Illinois.  The  ob¬ 
servers  were  well  trained  advanced  students  in  the  department. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


81 


Results:  In  the  preliminary  investigations  the  results  do  not 
show  marked  correlations  with  the  different  positions  of  the 
valves  unless  the  opening  on  one  side  was  much  greater  or  much 
less  than  on  the  other.  We  find,  however,  that  the  summation 
of  apertures  had  a  marked  effect  on  the  distance  of  the  sound. 
When  both  openings  were  large  the  sound  was  reported  as  much 
nearer  than  when  they  were  small.  The  modes  varied  respect¬ 
ively  from  a  distance  of  20  ft.  in  the  case  of  one-ear  presenta¬ 
tions  to  a  distance  of  one  foot  in  the  case  of  two-ear  presenta¬ 
tions.6  Another  way  of  illustrating  this  fact  lies  in  percentages 
obtained  for  loud  sounds,  e.g.,  60%  of  the  two-ear  presentations 
were  reported  as  “loud”  or  “very  loud,”  while  only  42%  of  the 
one-ear  presentations  were  so  described. 

While  our  results  on  the  matter  of  the  binaural  ratio  are  pre¬ 
liminary  and  tentative,  a  study  of  the  individual  tables  points  to 
the  conclusion  that  there  is  a  tendency  to  localize  a  sound  more 
and  more  toward  the  median  plane  as  unity  in  the  binaural  ratio 
of  intensity  is  reached.  The  data  on  this  point  are  not  as  yet 
sufficiently  free  from  the  errors  of  the  ordinary  “sound-cage” 
procedure  to  permit  of  precise  mathematical  formulation.  One 
of  the  chief  difficulties  which  confront  the  investigator  in  this 
field  is  the  inability  of  the  observer  faithfully  to  reproduce  his 
judgments  in  an  imaginary  sphere  either  by  the  visualization 
method  or  by  the  pointing  method.  But  expressed  in  percentages, 
there  are  indications  in  our  experiments  that  the  ratio  of  inten¬ 
sities,  as  transmitted  independently  to  the  two  ears,  was  the  con¬ 
trolling  factor  in  the  localization.  Eighty-six  per  cent,  of  the 
sounds  presented  to  the  two  ears  with  unlike  intensity  were 
localized  on  the  side  of  the  greater  intensity.  Sixty  per  cent, 
of  the  sounds  produced  with  equal  intensity  were  localized  in  the 
median  plane.  It  must  be  remembered,  of  course,  that  the  fewest 
errors  occurred  when  the  difference  in  intensity  was  marked 
and  that  some  sounds  with  a  moderate  difference  in  intensity 
were  localized  in  the  median  plane.  Although  all  the  observers 
were  tested  for  acuteness  of  hearing  and  fell  well  within  the 

6  This  ratio  is  somewhat  larger  than  the  summational  effect  reported  by 
Klemm,  op.  cit.,  79,  but,  of  course,  not  so  precisely  obtained. 


82 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


normal,  there  was  still  an  individual  difference  in  the  results  of 
our  experiments,  due  largely,  it  is  assumed,  to  variations  in 
ability  to  designate  the  localization. 

Conclusion:  On  the  basis  of  our  results  we  can  not,  of  course, 
speak  with  absolute  assurance  concerning  the  role  of  binaural 
intensity  in  sound  localization.  Our  experiments,  confined  to  a 
limited  number  of  observers  and  subjected  to  the  usual  methodo¬ 
logical  difficulties,  convince  us,  nevertheless,  that  no  factor  out¬ 
side  of  intensity  could  be  held  responsible  for  the  results  ob¬ 
tained,  and  that  the  results  themselves  were  far  above  the  figures 
for  chance  variation.  We  should  like  to  see  the  experiments  re¬ 
peated  under  better  conditions,  perhaps  out-of-doors,  and  with  a 
larger  number  of  observers,  but  with  a  strict  adherence  to  the 
procedure  “without  knowledge.” 

II 

Investigations  were  also  under  way  regarding  the  difference 
in  the  ability  of  an  observer  to  localize  sound  due  to  the  position 
of  his  body.  One  does  not  have  to  recall  here  the  questions 
that  have  arisen  in  the  literature  concerning  the  dependence  of 
sound  localization  on  the  semicircular  canals  and  the  muscular  ad¬ 
justments  due  to  the  inner  ear.  It  was  assumed  that,  if  the  re¬ 
flecting  surfaces  in  the  room  could  be  kept  uniformly  constant 
for  each  position,  any  differences  in  sound  localization  within  a 
sound-cage  would  be  due  to  these  disturbances. 

Apparatus  and  Procedure:  In  our  normal  series  we  placed 
the  observer  in  a  sitting  position  within  the  standard  form  of 
Stoelting  sound-cage  whose  telephonic  click  was  modified  by  in¬ 
troducing  a  vibrating  induction  coil.  The  telephone  receiver  was 
connected  to  the  secondary  circuit  of  this  coil.  Over  400  ob¬ 
servations  were  made  including  the  series  in  the  sitting  position. 
In  connection  with  the  other  positions,  a  couch  was  provided  and 
so  braced  that  the  head  should  be  projected  beyond  one  end  and 
that  it  should  then  be  approximately  at  the  same  point  as  it  was 
when  the  observer  was  in  the  sitting  position.  An  equal  number 
of  observations  were  taken  with  the  observer  lying  on  his  right, 
on  his  left,  on  his  back,  and  with  face  down.  The  room  used 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


83 


was  the  largest  in  the  laboratory  and,  so  far  as  possible,  reflect¬ 
ing  objects  within  the  room  were  removed. 

Results  and  Conclusions:  In  calculating  the  errors  for  each 
position  we  find  no  conclusive  evidence  of  any  marked  differences 
due  to  inclination  of  the  body.  We  eliminated,  however,  from 
each  series  the  first  five  judgments  on  the  ground  of  inaccuracy 
due  to  making  judgments  in  unaccustomed  positions.  This  part 
of  the  investigation  also  might  well  be  repeated  under  better 
conditions  and  with  more  observers.  Care  must  be  exercised, 
of  course,  that  the  couch  used  does  not  itself  add  new  reflecting 
surfaces  of  any  consequence  and  that  it  is,  at  the  same  time, 
fairly  comfortable  for  the  observer. 


THE  INTENSIVE  SUMMATION  OF  THERMAL 

SENSATIONS 

By  Annette  Baron  and  Madison  Bentley 

I 

When  we  plunge  the  fingertips  into  water  there  usually  arises 
a  sensation  of  cold  or  of  warmth  which  seems  gradually  to  in¬ 
crease  in  intensity  as  more  and  more  of  the  hand  is  immersed  in 
the  liquid.  From  this  common  experience  the  conclusion  has 
often  been  drawn  that  the  intensity  of  a  temperature  sensation 
is  a  function  of  the  size  of  the  stimulated  area. 

E.  W.  Weber,  who  long  ago  cited  the  instance,1  believed  that 
the  impression  of  temperature  felt  when  a  surface  is  heated  or 
cooled  was  due  to  the  summation  of  the  intensities  of  the  several 
sensations  aroused.  On  the  other  hand,  Stumpf,2  arguing  from 
the  analogy  with  auditory  sensations,  later  expressed  a  doubt 
concerning  the  actual  intensive  summation  among  sensations  of 
cold  and  warmth.  From  his  studies  on  tonal  fusion,  he  con¬ 
cluded  (i)  that  the  intensity  of  a  sound  is  not  augmented  but 
rather  diminished  by  the  presence  of  other  simultaneous  sounds; 
and  (2)  that  a  tonal  complex  is  no  stronger  than  its  strongest 
constituent.  There  is,  then,  as  he  thinks,  no  real  summation  of 
intensities. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  possibilities  in  the  case  of  temperature. 
Stumpf  himself  suggested  three  alternative  explanations  of  this 
apparent  augmentation  of  temperature  as  the  hand  is  plunged 
deeper  and  deeper;  (1)  the  confusion  of  spatial  extent  with  in¬ 
tensity,  (2)  the  stimulation  of  more  sensitive  regions  as  the  hand 
is  gradually  immersed,  and  (3)  an  augmentation  of  sensory 
feeling. 

Besides  these  three  possible  substitutes  for  a  real  intensive 
summation,  Barnholt  and  Bentley,3  attacking  the  problem  in  the 

1  Weber,  E.  H.,  in  Wagner’s  Handwdrterbnch  der  Physiol .,  1846,  iii,  2,  553. 

2  Stumpf,  C.,  Tonpsychologie,  1890,  ii,  446. 

3  Barnholt,  S.  E.,  and  Bentley,  M.,  Thermal  intensity  and  the  area  of 
stimulus,  Amer.  J.  of  Psychol.,  1911,  xxii,  325-332. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


85 


laboratory,  have  suggested  (4)  adaptation,  (5)  the  presence  or 
absence  of  organic  accompaniments,  (6)  the  confusion  of  pres¬ 
sure  with  temperature,  (7)  the  addition  of  individual  organs  of 
higher  tuning,  and  (8)  a  difference  in  cutaneous  conduction  in 
large  and  small  areas. 

These  experimenters  applied  temperature  points  to  areas  and 
to  individual  organs  for  cold  and  warmth,  on  the  forehead,  hand, 
and  forearm.  To  come  to  a  decision  among  all  these  possible 
explanations  of  the  simple  observation  from  which  they  set  out, 
they  devised  four  different  methods. 

The  first  method  consisted  in  the  immersion  of  the  fingers  to 
graduated  depths.  The  larger  surfaces  were  reported  as  giving 
more  intense  temperatures,  thus  confirming  common  observa¬ 
tion;  and,  moreover,  the  introspections  showed  the  judgment 
to  be  really  based,  in  part,  upon  intensive  differences. 

In  order  to  simplify  the  conditions,  a  second  method  was  em¬ 
ployed  in  which  a  series  of  five  flat-ended  brass  cylinders  with 
diameters  ranging  from  1.4  cm.  to  3.3  cm.  was  applied  to  the 
skin.  Again  the  larger  surfaces  led  to  reports  of  more  intensive 
colds  and  warmths. 

But  to  make  sure  that  mere  size  of  the  stimulated  area  was  not 
responsible  for  intensity,  a  third  method  introduced  comparisons 
between  graded  areas  of  high  and  low  sensitivities.  The  same 
cylinders  were  used  under  the  procedure  of  “paired  comparisons.” 
The  discovery  that  a  small  area  which  returned  a  vivid,  bright 
cold  or  warmth  could  be  made  equal,  for  sensation,  to  a  large  area 
of  low  sensitivity,  made  it  evident  that  not  extent  but  tuning 
was  the  primary  condition  of  the  intensive  judgment. 

The  factor  of  thermal  conduction  through  the  skin  was  dis¬ 
posed  of  under  the  fourth  method.  Differences  of  conduction 
were  eliminated  by  stimulation  of  individual  organs  chosen  at 
such  distances  from  each  other  as  to  eliminate  conduction  of  the 
stimulus  through  the  dermal  tissues.  First,  these  temperature 
organs  were  compared  with  each  other  (1)  in  pairs  and  (2)  in 
setting  one  against  two  others.  There  was  found  a  considerable 
difference  of  tuning  between  the  different  organs.  In  the  second 


86 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


part  of  the  final  method,  the  experimenter  observed  whether  re¬ 
enforcement  of  one  sense-organ  by  another  occurred.  The  ther¬ 
mal  sensation  produced  by  stimulation  of  a  single  organ  was 
compared  with  the  sensation  resulting  from  the  stimulation  of 
this  same  organ  plus  another  organ  of  higher  or  lower  tuning. 
The  two  organs  seemed  to  have  an  intensive  advantage  over  one 
only  when  one  of  them  was  superior  in  tuning.  That  is  to  say, 
no  convincing  evidence  of  summation  was  found;  instead,  the 
intensity  of  the  sensations  seemed  to  be  determined  only  by  the 
most  highly  responsive  spot  under  stimulation. 

Finally,  Barnholt  and  Bentley  demonstrated,  by  the  use  of 
artificial  membranes  simulating  the  skin,  that  the  large  stimulus 
may  influence  intensity  of  sensation  by  the  mechanical  process  of 
cooling  the  skin  under  conduction.  The  skin  is  actually  colder 
under  the  extensive  stimulus  than  it  is  under  the  stimulus  of 
smaller  extent. 

II 

It  has  seemed  desirable  to  repeat  some  of  the  methods  of  this 
experimental  study,  partly  for  the  sake  of  verification  by  a  larger 
number  of  observations,  partly  to  modify  the  procedure  in  cer¬ 
tain  important  respects,  and  partly  also  to  consider  the  divergent 
results  of  another  research  which  will  presently  be  described. 
The  following  methods  were  adopted. 

Method  A.  Four  organs  of  different  tuning  for  cold  were 
mapped  upon  the  volar  forearm  within  an  area  2  cm.  square 
and  designated  by  letter,  “w”  (weak),  “m”  (moderate),  “i”  in¬ 
tense),  and  “I”  (very  intense).4  They  were  stimulated  with 
blunt-pointed  temperature  cylinders  kept  at  o°C.  The  procedure 
was  as  before  (Method  IV,  above),  except  that  one  organ  was 
kept  throughout  a  whole  series,  first  being  compared  in  both 
temporal  orders  with  each  of  the  other  organs  taken  by  itself, 
then  with  two  of  them  given  simultaneously,  then  with  three, 
but  never  with  itself. 

In  Table  I  the  letters  A,  B,  and  C  denote  observers,  and  Tl.  is 

4  A  long  preliminary  series  served  to  determine  the  decided  graduation  in 
tuning  of  the  four  organs  selected. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


87 


TABLE  I 


m 

i 

I 

mi 

il 

ml 

wi 

mil 

Obs. 

G 

L 

— 

G 

L 

_ 

G 

— 

G 

L 

_ 

G 

G 

_ 

G 

G 

L 

, — 

A 

3 

1 

3 

1 

4 

4 

4 

4 

3 

1 

w 

B 

3 

1 

3 

1 

4 

4 

4 

4 

3 

1 

C 

3 

1 

4 

4 

3 

1 

4 

4 

4 

Tl. 

9 

1 

2 

10 

2 

12 

11 

1 

12 

12 

10 

2 

wi 

i 

I 

il 

wi 

wil 

A 

4 

2 

2 

4 

4 

4 

4 

m 

B 

4 

3 

1 

4 

4 

4 

4 

C 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

Tl. 

12 

9 

1 

2 

12 

12 

12 

12 

wi 

wm 

I 

ml 

wi 

wml 

A 

3 

1 

3 

1 

4 

4 

4 

i 

B 

3 

1 

4 

3 

1 

4 

4 

C 

3 

1 

4 

3 

1 

4 

2 

2 

Tl. 

6 

3 

3 

11 

1 

10 

2 

12 

10 

2 

wi 

wm 

mi 

wmi 

A 

4 

3 

1 

4 

3 

1 

I 

B 

1 

3 

4 

3 

1 

3 

1 

C 

3 

1 

4 

* 

4 

3 

1 

Tl. 

5 

6 

1 

3 

8 

1 

7 

4 

1 

6 

4  - 

2 

the  total  for  each  set.  The  entire  number  of  comparisons  is 
264.  The  letters  at  the  left  of  the  table  indicate  the  cold  organ 
— weak,  moderate,  intensive,  very  intensive, — which  is  com¬ 
pared  with  one  or  more  of  the  other  organs,  written  horizontally 
across  the  table.  Thus  “3”  written  near  the  upper  left-hand 
corner  means  that  Obs.  A  three  times  judged  the  cold  from  the 
organ  of  moderate  tuning  (m)  to  be  greater  (G)  than  the  cold 
from  the  weakly  tuned  organ  (w,  at  the  left).  The  relatively 
large  number  of  “greater”  (G)  judgments  where  each  organ  is 
compared  with  one  other  of  higher  tuning  (w  with  m,  i,  or  I; 
m  with  i  or  I;  etc.)  clearly  establishes  the  wide  and  constant  dif¬ 
ference  in  sensational  intensity  with  which  our  four  organs  re¬ 
sponded  throughout  the  experiments.  An  inspection  of  the 
results  will  make  it  apparent  that  the  member  of  the  comparison 
which  contains  one  or  more  ogans  of  high  tuning  is  nearly  always 
judged  to  be  more  intensive  (G)  than  the  other  number. 

In  order  to  guard  against  the  variable  errors  of  time, — expec¬ 
tation,  habituation,  fatigue,  and  the  like, — the  one-to-two  and 
the  one-to-three  judgments  were  all  repeated  with  all  Obs.  in  a 
mixed  order  of  presentation  with  a  selection  by  chance.  This 


88 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


control-series  numbered  128  additional  comparisons.  It  led  to 
100%  of  “greater”  judgments  (1)  when  2  or  3  organs  of  higher 
tuning  were  compared  with  1  weaker,  and  also  (2)  when  the 
single  organ  stood  intermediately  with  respect  to  2  or  3  others. 
In  those  cases  where  an  intensity  from  high  tuning  was  com¬ 
pared  with  two  intensities  from  low  tuning  the  L-cases  were 
only  4  out  of  24.  These  results,  then,  are  as  unequivocal  as 
the  others.  Their  significance  will  be  more  apparent  from  Table 
II,  where  both  sets  are  combined,  with  the  omission  of  the 
one-to-one  comparisons.  Here  the  intensity  from  one  organ  is 
always  compared  with  2  or  3  organs  of  different  tuning.  The 
G,  L  &  =  judgments  are  always  set  down  in  terms  of  the  plural 
organs. 

TABLE  II 


G 

L 

— 

T’ls 

2  organs  of  HIGHER  tuning 

79 

0 

1 

80 

3  organs  of  HIGHER  tuning 

19 

1 

0 

20 

1  organ  of  HIGHER  and  1  organ  of  lower  tuning 

78 

0 

2 

80 

1  organ  of  HIGHER  and  2  organs  of  lower  tuning 

18 

2 

0 

20 

2  organs  of  HIGHER  and  1  organ  of  lower  tuning 

20 

0 

0 

20 

2  organs  of  lower  tuning 

25 

34 

21 

80 

3  organs  of  lower  tuning 

14 

4 

2 

20 

The  Table  reads  thus:  the  presence  of  one  or  more  organs  of 
higher  tuning,  leads,  in  the  comparisons,  to  the  judgment 
“greater  intensity”  in  214  out  of  220  cases;  while  the  comparisons 
with  organs  of  lower  tuning  alone  leads  to  “greater”  judgments 
in  only  39  out  of  100  cases,  and  in  only  16%  in  the  second,  most 
reliable,  set  of  experiments.  But  if  the  number  of  temperature 
organs  stimulated,  instead  of  their  tuning ,  had  determined  the 
judgments,  then  there  should  have  been  as  many  G-cases  in 
the  last  hundred  as  in  the  first  hundred;  and  again,  these  cases 
should  have  run  with  the  plural  organs  in  the  middle  group. 

These  last  figures  show  even  more  clearly  than  the  correspond¬ 
ing  results  of  Barnhold  and  Bentley  the  essential  dependence  of 
intensity  upon  tuning.  There  is,  however,  left  the  fact  that 
plural  organs  of  lower  tuning  than  the  standard  do  give  rise  to 
G-cases  in  larger  number  than  the  L-cases  from  plural  organs  of 
higher  tuning.  There  is  still  left  the  implication  that  number 
does  play  a  minor  role  in  the  determination  of  intensity.  This 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


89 


implication  becomes  explicit  in  the  experiments  of  Siebrand, 
which  were  published5  at  about  the  same  time  as  the  Cornell  Ex¬ 
periments.  Although  Siebrand  did  only  a  few  experiments  and 
although  he  neglected  the  factor  of  tuning,  we  have  thought  it 
well  to  repeat  his  methods  under  the  necessary  precautions. 

Employing  the  flat  end  of  a  brass  rod  of  12  mm.  diameter, 
Siebrand  (p.  213b:)  stimulated  in  succession  two  areas  of  like 
extent  within  which  he  had  previously  determined  the  number 
and  position  of  the  cold  organs.  The  surface  including  the 
greater  number  of  organs  he  and  his  Obs.  sensed  as  colder  in 
80-90%  of  his  (60)  cases.  In  concluding  that  intensity  depends 
upon  number,  however,  he  overlooks  the  fact  that  the  greater 
the  number  of  receptors  the  greater  the  chance  of  including  at 
least  one  organ  of  high  tuning.  Our  own  experiments  follow. 

Method  B.  i.  Comparisons  between  two  areas  of  the  same  ex¬ 
tent.  A  square  area,  2  cm.  x  2  cm.  was  laid  off  upon  the  volar  fore¬ 
arm  of  the  observer.  The  number  and  position  of  the  cold-spots 
were  determined  by  means  of  blunt-pointed  cylinders.  When  the 
organs  had  been  accurately  localized  upon  the  square  their  tuning 
was  established  by  comparisons.  Four  degrees  of  tuning  were 
used;  w,  m,  i,  and  I.  The  experimenter,  using  only  the  flat  end 
of  a  temperature  cylinder  cooled  to  a  temperature  of  20°C.  (Sie¬ 
brand  used  i8°-20°),  compared  two  surfaces  of  equal  extent 
within  the  square,  which  included  different  numbers  and  different 
tunings  of  cold  organs.  As  many  comparisons  were  made  as 
were  possible  without  interfering  with  other  organs.  Two  series 
of  comparisons  gave  us  the  following  results.  The  small  letters 
indicate  as  before  the  tunings  of  the  organs  compared  for  in¬ 
tensity. 

TABLE  III 


1st 

Series : 

Obs. 

C. 

2nd 

Series 

* 

Obs. 

S. 

I  w 

< 

w 

m 

m 

m  i  i  i 

1  w 

< 

w 

m 

m 

i 

2  W 

m 

< 

w 

m 

m 

m  i  i  i 

2  w 

< 

w 

w 

m 

m 

m  i 

3  w 

m 

< 

m 

m 

m 

i 

3[w 

m 

< 

w 

m 

m 

m 

1 

4  w 

m 

• 

l 

< 

m 

m 

m 

i  I 

4  w 

w 

m 

< 

m 

i 

5  w 

m 

m 

i 

< 

m 

I 

5  w 

w 

m 

< 

i 

6  w 

m 

m 

•  • 

1  1 

< 

m 

m 

I 

6[w 

i 

< 

w 

w 

m 

m 

m] 

7  m 

< 

w 

m 

m 

• 

1 

7  [i 

< 

w 

w 

m 

m 

m] 

8[m 

I 

— 

w 

m 

m 

i  i] 

8[i 

< 

w 

w 

m 

m 

m] 

5  Siebrand,  Untersuchungen  iiber  den  Kaltesinn,  Zsch.  f.  Sinnes physiol.,  1911, 

XLV,  204-216. 


90 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


In  ii  of  the  1 6  cases  a  greater  intensity  is  reported  for  the 
member  which  involves  an  organ  of  higher  sensitivity,  the  num¬ 
ber  of  components  within  this  member  being  sometimes  more 
and  sometimes  less  than  the  other  member.  In  all  the  5  remaining 
cases  (in  square  brackets)  the  greater  intensity  appears  only 
when  a  much  larger  number  of  like  or  slightly  lower  organs 
enter  into  the  comparison. 

ii.  Comparison  between  a  point  and  a  surface.  Comparisons 
were  then  made  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  preceding  method,  ex¬ 
cept  that  we  now  alternatively  used  the  blunted  point  and  the 
flat  end  of  the  temperature  cylinders.  The  results  of  the  two 
series  of  experiments  are  reported  in  Table  IV. 


TABLE  IV 


1st  Series: 

Obs. 

C. 

2nd 

Series : 

Obs. 

S 

w 

w 

< 

m 

w 

m 

m 

> 

w 

w 

m 

< 

i 

w 

m 

m 

< 

I 

w 

w 

m 

< 

i 

w 

i 

< 

I 

w 

w 

w  m 

< 

I 

w 

w 

m 

i 

> 

i 

w 

m 

•  • 

1  1 

> 

i 

w 

m 

m 

i 

> 

w 

w 

m 

i  i 

> 

i 

w 

m 

m 

i  i 

> 

I 

m 

i 

> 

w 

w 

i  I 

> 

i 

m 

i 

> 

i 

m 

m 

< 

i 

m 

i 

< 

I 

m 

m 

• 

1 

> 

i 

w 

m 

— 

i 

m 

i 

> 

I 

In  8  of  the  20  cases  in  Table  IV  we  find  exceptions  to  Sie- 
brand’s  rule  that  thermal  intensity  is  a  function  of  the  number  of 
organs  excited,  i.e.,  in  these  8  cases  the  more  intensive  sensation 
is  produced  by  the  stimulation  of  a  single  organ  of  higher 
tuning  when  compared  with  an  area  which  includes  a  plurality 
of  spots  of  lower  sensitivity;  and  in  9  of  the  12  remaining  cases 
the  “stronger”  group  contained  an  organ  at  least  equal  in  tuning 
to  the  single  organ. 

Although  we  find  but  little  support  for  Siebrand’s  contention, 
there  does  here  again  appear  a  slight  intimation  that  the  number 
of  components  does  exert  an  influence  upon  the  judgment  of  in¬ 
tensity.  Let  us  further  refine  our  method  to  discover,  if  it  is 
possible,  whether,  and  under  what  conditions,  the  influence  of 
number  does  obtain. 

Method  C.  In  the  second  part  of  their  fourth  method,  Barnholt 
and  Bentley  have  observed  the  effect  of  adding  an  organ  of  unlike 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


9i 


tuning  to  one  already  under  stimulation.  We  have  adopted  the 
same  procedure,  but  for  another  purpose.  We  wished  to  discover 
whether  the  slight  tendency  to  connect  number  and  intensity  was 
due  to  the  lack  of  analysis  of  fused  or  colligated  members.  To 
this  end  we  have  distinguished  between  “total-impression”  and 
“analysis.”  With  the  same  application  of  stimulus,  we  have 
varied  the  instruction  to  our  observers.  Under  (i)  below  we 
give  our  results  where  the  Obs.  was  instructed  to  report  any  in¬ 
tensive  change  or  difference  which  might  appear,  without  analy¬ 
sis,  under  stimulation.  Under  (ii)  the  instructions  were  to  attend 
only  to  the  initial  cold,  reporting  any  alteration  which  might 
occur  in  that  particular  sensation. 

i.  Total-impression  judgments.  First  a  “moderate”  cold 
organ  (m)  was  stimulated  for  2-3  sec.  by  a  blunt  temperature 
cylinder  brought  immediately  after  drying  with  cotton  wool  from 
an  ice-bath  at  o°  C.  After  an  interval  of  2-3  sec.,  the  same 
stimulus  was  repeated,  this  time  with  the  addition  of  a  like 
stimulus  applied  to  an  “intensive”  (i)  or  a  “weak”  (w)  organ 
lying  within  the  radius  of  1 cm.  The  results  in  Table  V  include 
no  comparisons  for  Obs.  A,  B,  and  C,  and  72  comparisons 
for  a  highly  trained  Obs.,  M.  The  figures  are  percentages.  The 
letters  MI  and  MW  give  the  tuning  of  the  second  member  in  the 
comparison. 

TABLE  V 

Total  impression:  with  interval:  Obs.  A,  B,  C,  and  M. 

M  with  MI  or  with  MW 


G 

L 

— 

? 

T’ls 

Obs.  A,  B.  and  C  MI 

58 

0 

40 

2 

100 

“  M  MI 

70 

2 

14 

14 

100 

Obs.  A,  B,  and  C  MW 

21 

3 

67 

9 

100 

“  M  MW 

14 

33 

42 

11 

100 

The  results  agree  with  those  in  Table  II.  The  addition  of 
“I”  leads  to  a  large  number  of  “greater”  judgments,  and  the 
addition  of  W  to  more  “less”  and  “equal”  reports.  The  reduction 
of  “M”  under  repetition,  due  to  physiological  adaptation,  doubt¬ 
less  tends  to  change  the  whole  distribution  of  cases;  but  this 
factor  should  be  constant  in  both  halves  of  the  table. 

In  order  to  make  still  more  decided  the  difference  between 


92 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


total  impression  and  analysis,  we  repeated  the  last  experiment, 
except  that  now  we  continued  the  M-sensation  by  holding  the 
temperature  cylinder  in  place  throughout  the  interval  and  also  as 
long  as  the  second  member  (MI  or  MW)  endured.  See  Table 
VI,  which  includes  162  cases  for  A,  B,  and  C,  and  72  for  M. 

TABLE  VI 


Total  impression:  without  interval:  Obs.  A,  B,  C,  and  M. 


G 

L 

— 

? 

T’ls 

Obs.  A,  B,  and  C  MI 

70 

0 

26 

4 

100 

“  M  MI 

75 

3 

16 

6 

100 

Obs.  A,  B,  and  C  MW 

8 

1 

85 

6 

100 

“  M  MW 

14 

19 

53 

14 

100 

The  results  are  similar  to  the  last  preceding,  save  that  now  MI 
gives  more  G-cases  and  MW  more  equal-cases. 

ii.  Analytical  judgments.  The  instructions  to  attend  only 
to  the  initial  cold  (M)  and  to  report  only  an  intensive  change 
which  might  occur  in  this  sensation  when  I  or  W  was  added  led 
to  a  new  distribution  in  the  judgments.  Table  VII  is  based  upon 
90  comparisons  for  A,  B,  and  C,  and  144  for  M,  under  this  in¬ 
struction. 

TABLE  VII 

Analysis :  without  interval :  Obs.  A,  B,  C,  and  M. 


G 

L 

— 

? 

T’ls 

Obs.  A,  B,  and  C  MI 

35 

0 

62 

3 

100 

“  M  MI 

15 

0 

77 

8 

100 

Obs.  A,  B,  and  C,  MW 

2 

0 

94 

4 

100 

“  M  MW 

6 

1 

92 

I 

100 

It  appears  that,  under  analysis,  the  equal- judgments  notably 
increase.  Intensive  increases  are  still  reported  (though  less  fre¬ 
quently)  when  the  organ  of  high  tuning  (I)  is  added;  but  almost 
never  when  the  organ  of  low  tuning  (W)  is  added.  The  de¬ 
creases  almost  entirely  disappear.  The  tendency  is  for  M  to  re¬ 
main  unchanged.  Obs.  M,  whose  results  are  most  significant 
on  account  of  his  long  training  in  analysis,  was  encouraged  to 
make  as  full  an  introspective  report  as  he  could.  A  closer 
scrutiny  of  his  equal-cases  will  throw  further  light  upon  the  in¬ 
tegrity  of  the  cold  sensation.0  This  Obs.  found  that  these  cases 

6  Cf .  Pieron,  H.,  De  la  discrimination  spatiale  des  sensations  thermiques. 
Son  importance  pour  la  theorie  generate  de  la  discrimination  cutanee,  C.  r. 


CRITICAL  AND  EXPERIMENTAL  STUDIES 


93 


fell  into  four  classes,  to-wit:  (i)  equal-without-change  under 
addition  of  I  or  W  (tabulated  below  as  (e),  (2)  equal-with-an- 
undefined-addition  (e+?),  (3)  equal-in-the-presence-of-a- 

stronger  cold  sensation  (e+str.),  and  (4)  equal-in-the-presence- 
of-a-weaker  cold  (e+w).  The  distribution  (percentages  as  be¬ 
fore)  for  Obs.  M  into  these  four  equal-classes  is  indicated  in 
Table  VIII. 

TABLE  VIII 


Equal-cases  (121)  :  Obs.  M 


e 

e+  ? 

e+str. 

e+w 

T’ls 

MI 

27 

13 

53 

7 

100 

MW 

60 

21 

9 

10 

100 

Thus  it  appears  that  although  adequate  analysis  usually  (121 
in  144  cases)  reveals  the  unchanged  initial  cold,  the  addition  of  a 
stronger  thermal  quality  is  more  frequently  (53%)  noted  (Be- 
merkt  is  Stumpf’s  term,  loc.  cit.  p.  278)  than  is  the  addition  of 
a  weaker  cold  (10%),  and  that  a  corresponding  excess  of  plain 
“equals”  is  shown  where  the  second  (added)  stimulus  excites 
an  organ  of  low  sensitivity  (60%  and  27%).  It  seems  likely 
(though  the  matter  calls  for  more  explicit  treatment)  that  this 
result  simply  exemplifies  the  fact  that  the  intensive  attribute  is 
so  closely  bound  up  with  attributive  clearness  that  the  addition  of 
a  stronger  member  has  a  more  profound  effect — other  things 
equal — upon  a  complex  than  the  addition  of  a  weaker  member.7 
The  especial  significance  for  our  study  of  the  analytic  judgments 
is  that  the  slight  tendency  to  judge  as  “greater”  the  temperature 
(cold)  from  plural  organs  is  due  almost  wholly  to  the  tendency 
to  judge  in  terms  of  the  total  impression  (as  Stumpf  found  in 


Soc.  de  biol.,  1919,  lxxxii,  61-65.  By  dropping  water  upon  the  skin,  P.  excited 
“pure”  thermal  sensations  ( i.e .,  without  pressure).  He  found  the  limen  for 
discrimination  of  locality  to  be  relatively  small,  10-15  mm.  Most  of  our 
added  stimuli  (I  or  W)  fell  at  approximately  this  distance  from  the  initial 
stimulus  (M). 

7  The  reader  will  recall  that  Wundt’s  doctrine  of  the  “intensive  fusions” 
accords  the  chief  role  to  the  most  intensive  component.  The  classical  in¬ 
stance  is  the  fundamental  in  the  simple  clang  or  musical  note.  (Wundt,  W., 
G.  d.  physiol.  Psychol.,  5th  ed.,  vol.  ii,  1902,  418).  Cf.  the  experiments  of 
Bentley  upon  clearness  and  intensity  in  Titchener,  E.  B.,  Lectures  on  the 
elementary  psychology  of  feeling  and  attention,  1908,  36iff. 


94 


MADISON  BENTLEY 


the  case  of  tonal  complexes,  Tonpsychol. ,  ii,  424 f).  But  we  can¬ 
not  solve  the  problem  of  thermal  increments  by  reference  to  total 
impression  alone;  and  when  we  analyze,  we  discover  that  the 
thermal  quality  carries  its  own  intensity  in  spite  of  the  presence 
in  mind  of  other  sensations  of  the  same  mode. 

Summary 

I.  Our  experiments  support  the  view  that  no  fixed  dependence 
obtains  between  thermal  intensity  and  the  size  of  the  stimulated 
area.  The  apparent  and  alleged  dependence  is  chiefly  explained 
by  reference  to  the  fact  of  “tuning”  of  the  receptor-organs. 
Siebrand’s  contention  that  thermal  sensations  are  “summated” 
within  the  area  of  stimulation  is  not  substantial  because  he  neg¬ 
lected  this  cardinal  fact. 

II.  The  question  of  summation  demands  a  more  refined 
method  than  has  yet  been  used.  Barnholt  and  Bentley  have 
called  attention  to  obscurity  and  confusion  in  the  statement  of  the 
problem  and  also  to  various  misleading  forms  of  the  stimulus 
error.  We  have  added  the  distinction  between  analytic  judg¬ 
ments  and  judgments  of  total  impression,  apprehending  the  ne¬ 
cessity  of  instructing  the  observer. 

III.  Aside  from  the  factor  of  tuning,  we  have  referred  the 
tendency  to  report  as  “greater”  the  cold  from  two  or  more  or¬ 
gans  when  compared  with  one,  first,  to  the  judgment  of  total- 
impression,  as  opposed  to  the  judgment  based  upon  explicit 
analysis,  and  secondly,  to  the  fact  that  the  most  prominent  mem¬ 
ber  in  a  fusion  occupies  a  special  prominence,  which  tends  to 
obscure  the  other  members.  Our  experiments  furnish  no  evi¬ 
dence  of  a  true  summation  of  sensational  elements. 


■ 


V 


